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Happy belated Mother’s Day! The roots of this important celebration began in 1870 when Julia Howe wrote the Mother’s Day Proclamation. She wanted it to be a day when the influence of mothers might promote peace and advocate for the end of war.
Howe, who had six children, lived her life in the New York and New England area. She would have been 46 years old when the Civil War ended, and she was horrified by the death and destruction she witnessed. She envisioned an international body of women who could find ways to avoid war, which eventually led to her proclamation.
The Mothers Day we experience now is rooted in the work of Anna Jarvis, who wanted to create a holiday to honor her mother, Ann. Anna was one of 12 children, many of whom succumbed to common diseases of the time in her Appalachian home of Virginia. Her mother, Ann, worked to help other women in her community avoid the hardships she faced. When the Civil War happened she started organizing women’s groups to aid both Confederate and Union troops who were sick or wounded. Despite threats of violence against her, Ann organized a “Mother’s Friendship Day” in the post-Civil War chaos of 1868 to bring families from both sides of the war together and rebuild a sense of community.
While Howe would have been considered a northerner and Ann Jarvis a southerner, the mothers shared the belief that women – especially mothers – had the ability to unify people and maintain peace. After Ann’s death, her daughter Anna set out to commemorate the day her mother died, the second Sunday in May, as a nationally recognized Mother’s Day. Anna did not have children, and her focus wasn’t directed towards peace as much as it was on honoring one’s own mother. She chose white carnations to symbolize the holiday.
President Wilson issued a proclamation for the inaugural Mother’s Day in May 1914, less than two months before the start of World War I. Anna regretted that the holiday became more commercialized than what she had hoped would be an earnest “holy day.” She was so disillusioned by how she saw people celebrate the day that in 1943 she tried, unsuccessfully, to have the holiday recalled.
So much of what these women valued is still relevant today. I love the idea of reimagining how I celebrate Mother’s Day, and rather use it as an opportunity to advocate for peace and human rights, especially for women and children, going forward. I love the handmade cards and the special meals and flowers. But what I’d love more than anything, as a mother and as a human being, is a world without war and division for my daughter to become a woman in.
