[dar-list] mothers day history

[Sharon G]

There seems to be an alternative version of the origins of mothers
day. Hope all those mothers out there had a happy one...
______________________

Mother's Day History
Contrary to popular belief, Mother's Day was not conceived and
fine-tuned in the boardroom of Hallmark. The earliest tributes to
mothers date back to the annual spring festival the Greeks dedicated
to Rhea, the mother of many deities, and to the offerings ancient
Romans made to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele. Christians
celebrated this festival on the fourth Sunday in Lent in honor of
Mary, mother of Christ. In England this holiday was expanded to
include all mothers and was called Mothering Sunday.

In the United States, Mother's Day started nearly 150 years ago, when
Anna Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker, organized a day to raise
awareness of poor health conditions in her community, a cause she
believed would be best advocated by mothers. She called it "Mother's
Work Day."

Fifteen years later, Julia Ward Howe, a Boston poet, pacifist,
suffragist, and author of the lyrics to the "Battle Hymn of the
Republic," organized a day encouraging mothers to rally for peace,
since she believed they bore the loss of human life more harshly than
anyone else.

In 1905 when Anna Jarvis died, her daughter, also named Anna, began a
campaign to memorialize the life work of her mother. Legend has it
that young Anna remembered a Sunday school lesson that her mother gave
in which she said, "I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found
a memorial mother's day. There are many days for men, but none for
mothers."

Anna began to lobby prominent businessmen like John Wannamaker, and
politicians including Presidents Taft and Roosevelt to support her
campaign to create a special day to honor mothers. At one of the first
services organized to celebrate Anna's mother in 1908, at her church
in West Virginia, Anna handed out her mother's favorite flower, the
white carnation. Five years later, the House of Representatives
adopted a resolution calling for officials of the federal government
to wear white carnations on Mother's Day. In 1914 Anna's hard work
paid off when Woodrow Wilson signed a bill recognizing Mother's Day as
a national holiday.

At first, people observed Mother's Day by attending church, writing
letters to their mothers, and eventually, by sending cards, presents,
and flowers. With the increasing gift-giving activity associated with
Mother's Day, Anna Jarvis became enraged. She believed that the day's
sentiment was being sacrificed at the expense of greed and profit. In
1923 she filed a lawsuit to stop a Mother's Day festival, and was even
arrested for disturbing the peace at a convention selling carnations
for a war mother's group. Before her death in 1948, Jarvis is said to
have confessed that she regretted ever starting the mother's day
tradition.

Despite Jarvis's misgivings, Mother's Day has flourished in the United
States. In fact, the second Sunday of May has become the most popular
day of the year to dine out, and telephone lines record their highest
traffic, as sons and daughters everywhere take advantage of this day
to honor and to express appreciation of their mothers
-- 
And the blessings were like poets that we never find time to know,
But when time stopped I found the place where the poets go.
And they said, "Here have some coffee, it's straight, black and very old,"
And they gave me sticks and rocks and stars and all that I could hold,


sage advisor, does weary mean wiser
dar williams