How did Mother’s Day begin?

There are many legends of ancient Greek and Roman celebrations for a mother goddess and spring holidays in Celtic England for St. Brigid honoring the first milk of ewes. (That caught my eye, my specialty being the breast.) However, the US holiday seems to have been born from the ideas of two women — Julia Ward Howe (author of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic"), who tried to create a Mother’s Day for Peace in 1873, and Anna Jarvis, who celebrated the first Mother’s Day at her local church on May 10, 1907, the day of her mother’s death.
Ms. Jarvis wanted to honor her mother’s efforts in creating Mother’s Work Days for improved sanitation and Mother’s Friendship Days for reconciliation after the Civil War. After much debate, Congress established an official Mother’s Day in 1914 and Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the day to honor women’s role in the family (not what the original women actually intended it to be). In fact Ms. Jarvis, who was not a mother herself, is said to have written angrily about the commercialism of the holiday back then, saying that buying a card is a poor excuse for the letter you are too lazy to write. She remained at odds with the floral industry until her death.
Which brings me to the present. What is the purpose of Mother’s Day in 2009? Beyond trying to find the perfect card and gift, it is a day to simply honor motherhood. But wouldn’t it be nice if every day we had some sort of little ritual to honor mothering? Or better yet, for each of us to find some way to remember the importance of first being a good mother to our self?


http://www.womentowomen.com/womenshealth/mothersday.aspx