A short history of Mother’s Day
Mon 14 May 2007
Lauren Kesby, Journalism
Jacqueline Graham and her 16-month-old daughter, Georgina, enjoyed their first ‘real’ Mother’s Day together on May 13 .
“Last year she was just a baby. This year she recognises me as her mother,” Jacqueline said. “I’m looking forward to going to the beach with her for Mother’s Day.”
However, Jacqueline is concerned that Mother’s Day seems to have lost its meaning in recent times.
“I find it has become far too commercial,” Jacqueline said. “I don’t need a Hallmark card. I would prefer a simple ‘I love you’ and a home-cooked brekkie.
“I have a little while to wait for that though. I’m not quite ready to let Georgina loose in the kitchen yet.”
Mother’s Day is often the peak day of the year for long-distance telephone calls, the busiest day of the year for many restaurants and is the second highest gift-giving holiday, with the highest being Christmas.
Ethical Culture Leader, Unitarian Universalist minister, web writer, and teacher Jone Johnson Lewis researched women’s history around the world and in different eras, with particular interest in 19th century social reform and religion.
Ms Lewis said celebrations of mothers and motherhood dates back to ancient Greece and ancient Rome. Greeks celebrated Rhea, the mother of the gods, and the focus of Roman celebrations was Cybele, a mother goddess.
In the early 17th century, Britain had a day “when apprentices and servants could return home for a day to visit their mothers”, Ms Lewis said.
Julia Ward Howe promoted a ‘Mother’s Day for Peace’ during the US Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. However, the celebration died out when Howe stopped paying for them.
In 1858, US teacher Anna Reeves Jarvis began a Mother’s Work Day with the intention of improving sanitation in her town.
In 1905 Anna Jarvis, daughter of Anna Reeves Jarvis, swore at her mother’s gravesite to begin a Mother’s Day to honour mothers, living and dead.
Anna Jarvis began by handing out pamphlets and her mother’s favourite flowers, the white carnation.
It became customary to use white carnations to honour a deceased mother and pink carnations to honour a living mother. In Australia chrysanthemums are commonly used.
Australians celebrate the most internationally common Mother’s Day, on the second Sunday of May.
“No one can come between a mother and her child,” Jacqueline said. “Georgina is a huge responsibility. I have to make sure she grows up with a proper understanding of the world and good morals. They are so reliant on you to explain the whole world to them. The whole world is open to introduce them to it. We [mothers] have to be so adaptable. We have to be everything for our child.”
“I think Mother’s Day should be a time for the sons and daughters of the world to think about the sacrifices their mother has made for them,” Jacqueline said. “How her life goes on hold because she wants the best for her child.”
Image(s) designed by Lauren Kesby