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Mother's Day History
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Roots in the holiday may lie in "Mothering Day," which
has been celebrated in England for centuries.
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Even earlier roots for the holiday may lie with the Greeks, and
then Romans, who both had Spring festivals to honor the mother goddess.
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American beginnings of the Mother's Day holiday began with Julia
Ward Howe who in 1872 who began a Mother's Day meeting in Boston on
each June 2nd. Several other people in other cities began similar
rituals.
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At the turn of the 20th Century, Anna Jarvis was a young schoolteacher
who lived in Grafton, West Virginia and Philadelphia, PA. Her mother
died in 1905, and Anna wanted to honor her memory.
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In 1907 Ms. Jarvis began a letter writing campaign to newspapers
and politicians to make the 2nd Sunday in May, Mother's Day. Official
celebrations of Mother's Day were held in a number of towns and cities
in May of the following year.
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By 1914, Mother's Day finally received national recognition when
President Woodrow Wilson signed a joint resolution recommending its
observance. In 1915, Mother's Day was proclaimed a national holiday
by President Wilson, to be celebrated on the second Sunday each May.
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Ms. Jarvis began the custom of wearing a single white carnation
on Mother's Day, since it was her mother's favorite flower.
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Commercialization of this holiday by the Flower industry and Greeting
Card industry followed soon after.
Sources for this information include an entry in World Book 2000 and an
article by Leigh Eric Schmidt in the Journal of American History (Dec 1991)
called "The Commercialization of the Calendar."
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