The Origin of Mother's Day

First off, we'd like to say HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all of you wonderful mothers out there! To those of you who are biological mothers and to those of you who have stepped in and taken on the role of mother to someone else's child, we appreciate you!

Now, we all celebrate Mother's Day each year, but how many of us actually know how it started? Culturally, the celebrations date back probably further than we all can think. The ancient Egyptians celebrated the mother goddess Isis, the Greeks celebrated the goddess Rhea who was mother of other deities such as Zeus, and the Romans celebrated their mother figure Cybele.

But how did the tradition come to North America? It all began with Julia Ward Howe who wrote a proclamation in 1870 asking for an international Mother's Day of Peace for sons to stop killing the sons of other mothers. Mother's Day as we know it today began in 1908 when Anna Jarvis of West Virginia held a Mother's Friendship Day in honor of her own mother. She gave her mom's favorite flower to every mother who attended. (Today, white carnations are used to honor deceased mothers while pink or red ones are for mothers who are still living.) Six years later in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson declared the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day.

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Article Source: Huffington Post