International Mother's Day is usually observed on the second Sunday of May each year, it does not have a fixed day. This year, Mother's day will be celebrated on May 12.
The day is celebrated in honour of mothers. According to Britannica, during the Middle Ages, "the custom developed of allowing those who had moved away to visit their mothers on Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent".
This developed into Mothering Sunday in Britain, where it continued into modern times till it was replaced by Mother’s Day on May 12, 1907, when Philadelphia resident Anna Jarvis hosted a Mother’s Day Service of Worship in the church of Grafton, West Virginia, in honour of her late mother.
Over time, the day began to include celebration of motherly figures such as grandmothers and aunts as well.
The day started gaining popularity, and within five years of its observance, it was celebrated in almost every state of the United States. It was later also declared a national holiday in the country.
History and significance of Mother's Day
It began with a powerful bond between a mother and daughter. Anna Reeves Jarvis started Mother’s Day as a tribute to her mom Ann Reeves Jarvis, a human rights activist during the Civil War of 1861.
When Ann passed away on May 9, 1904, Anna hit upon the idea of a general Mother’s Day to celebrate all mothers, to be held around the anniversary of her own mother’s death. She invited friends and family to St Andrews Methodist Church in West Virginia, which now has the International Mother’s Day Shrine to honour her mother on the one-year anniversary of her death. She handed out carnations, her mother’s favourite flower, to all the mothers in attendance.
It was such a moving tribute that she and her loved ones decided to keep the tradition going each May. They broadened the celebration to include mothers in general.
Seeing how successful this first Mother’s Day event was, Anna vowed to make it a national holiday. She tirelessly wrote to politicians and newspapers from around the country, asking them to adopt the day and celebrate motherhood. Soon, the idea caught on and spread to 45 other states, and several of them even declared it an official holiday in 1912 and after. Finally, in 1914, former President Woodrow Wilson announced the first national celebration of Mother’s Day.
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