Mother's Day 2017: When Was it First Celebrated?
Mother's Day is an established tradition wherein mothers are honored for their special role in the family. The celebration also upholds motherhood and maternal bonds in general, and the part that moms play in the greater society. What are some of the facts and traditions that revolve around the celebration?
This year, Mother's Day falls on May 14, the second Sunday in May in 2017. On this day, families celebrate the holiday by praying in churches on behalf of mothers everywhere. Of course, gifts are also presented to moms on this day to express the family's love for their mother. Flowers and cards with Mother's Day greetings written in them are common gifts, and some families also celebrate with a special dinner to commemorate the occasion.
Today, Mother's Day is celebrated in some form in more than 46 countries throughout the world. Some of them are held at a date other than the second Sunday of May.
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In the United States, the history of the celebration goes back all the way to the 1900s. It is Anna Jarvis who has been a major figure in getting the holiday recognized throughout the country, and she did it in honor of her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis. Anna Jarvis began a campaign to have a holiday in recognition of mother's everywhere after her mother's death in 1905, as a way to honor the sacrifices mothers make for their kids, according to the International Business Times.
The first Mother's Day in the U.S. was organized by Jarvis in May 1908 at a church in West Virginia. Afterward, she launched an extensive campaign to have a day for mothers marked out in calendars everywhere in the country. Her efforts include sending letters to newspapers and political offices to advocate for the holiday, and they paid off when President Woodrow Wilson signed an order to establish the second Sunday of May as Mother's Day.
