The origin of mother’s day came about with a school teacher in West Virginia, Anna Jarvis. She had organized a memorial for her late mother in 1908, which was the first celebration of mother’s day.
Anna’s mother was Ann Reeves Jarvis, who was an anti-war activist and helped form clubs for mothers. After her death on May 5, 1905, Anna led on a protest for years to procure a national holiday in view of celebrating the mothers for one day.
It was nine years later that the then US President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation declaring every second Sunday in the month of May to be a national holiday and to be celebrated as Mother’s Day. Since then, the sacrifice and service of a mother is celebrated on May’s second Sunday. Most countries, including India, also follow the same.
Some other countries, however, celebrate mother’s day on different dates. In England for example, the faithful returned to the mother church or home church on the fourth Sunday of Lent. The Christian festival was called Mothering Sunday and had little to no similarity with today’s mother’s day. It later also became the day when domestic servants were given leaves to visit their mothers.
People in England, Ireland and some other English speaking nations still celebrate mother’s day on the age-old Mothering Sunday, which usually falls in March.
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