A Door County Mom’s Essay on the True Origin of Mother’s Day, First Celebrated as “Mother’s Work Day” in 1858
Posted on 09. May, 2010 by Elizabeth Moriarty in Heritage
Editor’s note: This essay was first published on Mother’s Day in the Door County Compass, the “mother” of our own current publication, on May 7, 2005.
The first Mother’s Day was organized by mothers, not for mothers.
The first manifestation of Mother’s Day was called “Mothers’ Work Day,” a movement begun in 1858 by Appalachian homemaker Anna Jarvis, mother of eleven. Since only four of Anna’s children survived beyond early childhood, she was determined to improve community hygiene in a time when poor sanitation resulted in an extremely high mortality rate among children under the age of five years old. Anna engaged physicians to undertake learning the science of sanitation, disinfection and proper food preparation in a series of seminars, and then she dispersed women into the community to teach others.
Later, when her community became an armed camp of both the Union and Confederates in 1861, she declared a “Mothers’ Friendship Day,” advising both sides that the women of her community would not engage for or against either side, but would maintain friendship and goodwill equally with all soldiers.
When an epidemic of typhoid fever broke out among the soldiers of both camps, the women were prepared with their training in sanitation and disinfection, and were trusted by both the Blue and the Gray. Then, when the war was over, public officials relied on the universal goodwill toward the women of the “Mothers’ Friendship Day” movement to assist the community in the peacemaking process.
Julia Ward Howe announced a "Mother's Peace Day" in 1870
Inspired by Anna Jarvis and the mothers of her West Virginian community, suffragette Julia Ward Howe announced a “Mother’s Peace Day” in 1870. Julia Ward Howe was a noted activist by that time, and author of the lyrics to the “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” As a Unitarian Universalist, she believed that the two most important causes in the world were peace and equality, and it was her intention that Mother’s Day inspire women to cross national, cultural and religious divides to find peaceful resolutions to conflicts. She issued a Declaration, hoping to gather women in an international congress of action.
Julia Ward Howe devised the effort to launch an official Mother’s Day as an endeavor for peace, encouraging mothers to rally politically, socially and economically. She believed that mothers bore the loss of human life more harshly and intimately than anyone else and placed the responsibility for the peace effort on mothers.
Eventually, the Mother’s Day custom spread across the United States. Greatly due to the efforts of Anna Jarvis’ daughter – also named Anna Jarvis – the holiday was officially recognized in 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother’s Day.
Unfortunately, the founding ideal of the day – and the imperative for action – was overtaken by the commercial celebration of mothers. With the gift-giving activity associated with Mother’s Day – in tandem with the forsaking of the tradition of service to life, equality and peace activism – Anna Jarvis became enraged.
She believed that the day’s sentiment was “sacrificed at the altar of greed and profit,” as she alleged in her 1923 lawsuit to stop a Mother’s Day festival. She failed to prevent the festival, however, and was ironically arrested for “disturbing the peace” at the event, which housed an array of vendors and much purchasing of goods. The disheartened Anna Jarvis deeply regretted her efforts to initiate Mother’s Day and mourned the neglect of the spirit of the founding mothers.
Eliza Moriarity says, “On Mother’s Day I graciously and gratefully accept kisses, breakfast in bed and Fair Trade chocolates… and ask that we once again demand that our leaders seek peaceful resolutions to conflict and work for decent and fair treatment of people of all cultures.” She is the founder of Herbologie, makers of certified organic body care products.
Follow @doorcounty for instant DC Style news
 |
