Page 14 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • May 6, 2009
Remember Mom on Mother’s
Mother’s Day started 101 years ago as an emotional, local, nebulous observance in the hills of Grafton, West Virginia, in a little country church which still stands as a national shrine. Mother’s Day was the idea of Anna Reeves Jarvis, who dedicated her life, after Mother’s Day in 1908, to sharing ideas about honoring mothers, first across the country, then overseas. Little did she know then that her works, though never recorded, would be heard around the world and would set in motion a movement that, in later years, would transcend state and national borders. Latest research shows that Mother’s Day is observed by
Day! Sunday, May 10th
day. Three years after that, the United States Congress made it a national holiday. So, from the love, respect and dedication of an unmarried woman who never became a mother, came the contemporary Mother’s Day. Jarvis spent 40 fruitful years crusading, documenting and campaigning on behalf of her noble ideal of reverence and gratitude for the mothers of the world. National boundaries, race, creed, color, religion or status in society do not limit Mother’s Day. Everyone has a mother and unanimously takes joy and satisfaction in celebrating the many contributions from mothers all around the world.
Mother’s Day: A tradition for over 100 years
no fewer than 95 percent of all Americans. Other findings indicate international observance of Mother’s Day in more than 100 countries in Western Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, and Africa. The first Mother’s Day was the idea of Julia Ward Howe, an early women’s rights activist, who was moved by the horrors of the Franco-Prussian War. Her crusade was called “Mothers Against War.” Though the event received international recognition, it soon collapsed. When Jarvis developed the idea of Mother’s Day 50 years later, however, the idea turned out to be a success. Only two years later, it became a West Virginia state holi-