While many people might assume that Mother's Day is a holiday invented by the fine folks at Hallmark, it's not so. The earliest Mother's Day celebrations can be traced back to the spring celebrations of ancient Greece, honoring Rhea, the Mother of the Gods. The Romans called their version of the event the Hilaria, and celebrated on the Ides of March by making offerings in the temple of Cybele, the mother of the Gods. Early Christians celebrated the festival on the fourth Sunday of Lent in honor of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ.
The Mother Behind Mother's Day
The story behind Ana Jarvis's mother, one Anna Maria Reeves Jarvis, is just as interesting than the story of Mother's Day itself. The elder Mrs. Jarvis organized a series of "Mother's Work Camps" in West Virginia to improve health and sanitary conditions before the civil war. During the war she declared neutrality for her organizations and regularly aided soldiers in need on both sides of the struggle.
Mother's Day festivities in the United States date back to 1872 when Julia Ward Howe (her other claim to fame was writing the lyrics for the "Battle Hymn of the Republic") suggested the day be dedicated to peace. Ms. Howe would hold organized Mother's Day meetings in Boston, Massachusetts ever year.
In 1907, Ana Jarvis, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania school teacher, furthered the cause by beginning 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, which happened to be on the 2nd Sunday of May that year. By the following year, Mother's Day was also being celebrated in Philadelphia.
Not content to rest on her laurels, Ms. Jarvis and her supporters began to write to ministers, businessman, and politicians in their quest to establish a national Mother's Day and in 1912, the Mother's Day International Association was incorporated for the purpose of promoting the day and its observance. By 1911, Mother's Day was celebrated in almost every state in the nation. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson made it official by proclaiming Mother's Day a national holiday that was to be held each year on the 2nd Sunday of May.
It is somewhat ironic that after all her efforts, Ana Jarvis ended up growing bitter over what she perceived as the corruption of the holiday she created. She abhorred the commercialization of the holiday and grew so enraged by it that she filed a lawsuit to stop a 1923 Mother's Day festival and was even arrested for disturbing the peace at a war mothers' convention where women sold white carnations -- Jarvis' symbol for mothers -- to raise money. Ana Jarvis' story is not a happy one. Things went from bad to worse and she eventually lost everything and everyone that was close to her and died alone in a sanatorium in 1948. Shortly before her death, Jarvis told a reporter she was sorry she had ever started Mother's Day.
Ana may be gone, but Mother's Day lives on, regardless of whether it meets her approval. Many countries throughout the world celebrate Mother's Day at various times throughout the year, but some such as Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia, and Belgium also celebrate Mother's Day on the second Sunday of May.
Meet amazing 'moms' from the animal kingdom
After an elephant mom endures a 22-month pregnancy, she gives birth to the largest newborn of the jungle, a 250-pound calf that’s almost entirely dependent on her for survival. Because her baby is born nearly blind, the elephant mother helps her calf to use its trunk to discover the outside world—and its mother’s unconditional love.
A female polar bear gets pregnant in the spring and promptly gains over 400 pounds, often doubling her original weight. She’ll need all that extra fat. When the hunting season ends in the fall, she slows way down, entering a hibernation-like state inside a maternity den. She stays half-asleep through the birth of her cubs, and by the time she emerges from her den she'll have fasted for as long as eight months.
Bottlenose dolphins, like other mammals, nurse their young. Because nursing can be a little tricky under water, a mother may help her calf suckle by ejecting milk from her mammary glands. The calf nurses for about a year and a half, but even after weaning a young dolphin knows it has a good thing going and stays close to its mother for several years.
The alligator mom is smarter than she may let on. Instead of being stuck sitting on her eggs to keep them warm, she puts the eggs in a mound of rotting vegetation that produces heat as it decomposes. Eggs kept at 86 degrees (Fahrenheit) or lower produce females; those 93 degrees or higher will be males. Mom’s more hands-on after the eggs hatch; for about a year, she’ll protect them from predators (like other alligators).
The orangutan mother may be the animal kingdom’s ultimate advocate for “attachment parenting.” She carries her newborn constantly, never breaking contact for about the first four months of her baby’s life. She won’t wean her baby until about age four, and then may allow the baby to continue nursing during times of stress for another three years or so. Orangutans stay with their mothers for about eight years, longer than any other animal besides humans.
Weddell seal moms may have to endure the bitter cold of their home near the South Pole, but at least parenting poses relatively few complications for them. For example, it takes just one to four minutes for a female Weddell seal to give birth. She’ll nurse her pup for only about six weeks—after that the pup can pretty much take care of itself. At least give a call on Mother’s Day, why dontcha!
A meerkat mom is kept busy, having up to four litters a year, typically with two to four pups in each litter. The pups are born in underground burrows, where they stay for at least three weeks before emerging for the first time. The pups’ debut is quite an event—the whole meerkat clan comes to watch. As the pups mature, mom gets help from “babysitters” among the clan and even from the father.
Hippo moms typically give birth underwater and then immediately help the newborn calves to the surface for air. Baby hippos can suckle underwater or on land and will continue to nurse for about a year. Because they share their aquatic homes with predators like crocodiles, hippo moms need to protect their calves for the first year or so of their lives.
Cougars make devoted moms. For nearly their entire adult lives, female cougars are either pregnant or raising kittens. Every couple of years or so they give birth to litters of typically two or three kittens, who are born blind and completely dependent on their mother for survival. The kittens nurse for about three months, spending most of their time with their mom in dens for protection. Even after weaning and learning from mom how to hunt on their own, they tend to stick around with her until they’re about two years old—just in time for her next litter!
Female gorillas start having babies at around 10 or 12 years of age. A gorilla mom carries her newborn in her arms while she forages for food and makes new nests each day. After about three months, the baby starts riding on its mom’s back by holding onto her fur. Mother and baby maintain a strong bond. Even after the baby learns to walk, at about nine months, it will continue riding on its mom’s back for another couple of years.
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