MOTHER'S DAY

The earliest Mother's Day celebrations can be traced back to the spring celebrations of ancient Greece in honor of Rhea, the Mother of the Gods. During the 1600's, England celebrated a day called "Mothering Sunday". Celebrated on the 4th Sunday of Lent (the 40 day period leading up to Easter*), "Mothering Sunday" honored the mothers of England.

During this time many of the England's poor worked as servants for the wealthy. As most jobs were located far from their homes, the servants would live at the houses of their employers. On Mothering Sunday the servants would have the day off and were encouraged to return home and spend the day with their mothers. A special cake, called the mothering cake, was often brought along to provide a festive touch.
As Christianity spread throughout Europe the celebration changed to honor the "Mother Church" - the spiritual power that gave them life and protected them from harm. Over time the church festival blended with the Mothering Sunday celebration . People began honoring their mothers as well as the church.

In the United States Mother's Day was first suggested in 1872 by Julia Ward Howe (who wrote the words to the Battle hymn of the Republic) as a day dedicated to peace. Ms. Howe would hold organized Mother's Day meetings in Boston, Mass ever year.
In 1907 Ana Jarvis, from Philadelphia, began a campaign to establish a national Mother's Day. Ms. Jarvis persuaded her mother's church in Grafton, West Virginia to celebrate Mother's Day on the second anniversary of her mother's death, the 2nd Sunday of May. By the next year Mother's Day was also celebrated in Philadelphia.

Ms. Jarvis and her supporters began to write to ministers, businessman, and politicians in their quest to establish a national Mother's Day. It was successful as by 1911 Mother's Day was celebrated in almost every state. President Woodrow Wilson, in 1914, made the official announcement proclaiming Mother's Day as a national holiday that was to be held each year on the 2nd Sunday of May.
While many countries of the world celebrate their own Mother's Day at different times throughout the year, there are some countries such as Denmark, Finland, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Australia, and Belgium which also celebrate Mother's Day on the second Sunday of May.

Carnations (the flowers of Mother's Day)

Carnations were Anna Jarvis' mother's favorite flowers.So on the 3rd anniversary of her mother's death in 1908 the observance of a general mother's day began with the launch of programs at the Andrew's Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton and in Philadelphia. Anna sent along 500 white carnations, her mother's favourite flower. In a telegram Anna said that         "each one present will be given a white carnation; mothers will be given two, in  memory of the day. These five hundred carnations are given by a loyal, loving daughter in honour and sacred memory of her good and faithful mother, Mrs. Anna. R. Jarvis, who worked faithfully and earnestly for twenty long years, as an earnest teacher in our Sunday School, who only a few years ago departed to that better world to reap the reward of her labours here. Everyone is asked to wear this flower.

The white carnation is preferred because it may be thought to typify some of the virtues of motherhood; ....whiteness stands for purity; its lasting qualities, faithfulness; its fragrance, love, its wide field of growth, charity; its form, beauty..."

In the ensuing years Anna sent over 10,000 carnations as gifts to the Andrews Church.
Now throughout the world, carnations - red for living parents and white for deceased - are worn world wide as symbols of the purity, strength and endurance of motherhood.

For my mother, with all my love !!!!!!!!!!!
i miss you mom .... ,

             your daughter, athena .