In the United States of America Mother's Day was first suggested in the year 1872 by Julia Ward Howe who wrote the words to the Battle hymn of the Republic as a day dedicated to peace. She would hold an organized Mother's Day meetings in Boston, Massachusetts every year.
It wasn't until in 1907 Anna Jarvis, from Philadelphia, began a campaign to establish a national Mother's Day. Ms. Jarvis persuaded her mother's church in Grafton, West Virginia to celebrate Mother's Day on the second anniversary of her mother's death, the 2nd Sunday of May. By the next year Mother's Day was also celebrated in Philadelphia.
She and several of her supporters began to write to ministers, businessman, and politicians in their endeavour to establish a national Mother's Day. In 1910, the governor of West Virginia proclaimed the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day and a year later every state celebrated it. It was successful as by 1911 Mother's Day was celebrated in almost every state. President Woodrow Wilson, in 1914, made the official announcement proclaiming Mother's Day as a national holiday that was to be held each year on the 2nd Sunday of May.
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A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine, desert us when troubles thicken around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts. - By Washington Irving (1783-1859)
The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom.- H.W. Beecher
All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother. - Lincoln
A father may turn his back on his child; brothers and sisters may become inveterate enemies; husbands my desert their wives and wives their husbands. But a mother's love endures through all; in good repute, in bad repute, in the face of the world's condemnation, a mother still loves on, and still hopes that her child may turn from his evil ways, and repent; still she remembers the infant smiles that once filled her bosom with rapture, the merry laugh, the joyful shout of his childhood, the opening promise of his youth; and she can never be brought to think him all unworthy. - Washington Irving
Links to Poems
What is a Mother?
A Mother's Love
And Grandma's Too
You Know You're a Mom When
Your Mother is Always With You
The Motherhood Place a great website to visit
I am very grateful to havesuch a loving and caring family and to my husband, children and grandchildren - I say "thank you ~ I love you"
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