People trace back celebrations of mothers and motherhood to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who held festivals in honor of the mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele, but the modern precedent for Mother’s Day is often thought to be the early Christian festival known as Mothering Sunday.
Once a major tradition in the United Kingdom and parts of Europe, this celebration fell on the fourth Sunday in Lent and was originally viewed as a time when the faithful would return to their “mother church”—the main church in the vicinity of their home—for a special service.
The origins of Mother's Day as celebrated in the US date back to the 19th century. Before the Civil War, Ann Reeves Jarvis of West Virginia helped start “Mothers’ Day Work Clubs" to teach local women how to properly care for their children.
These clubs later became a unifying force in a region of the country still divided over the Civil War, and in 1868, Jarvis organized “Mothers’ Friendship Day,” at which mothers gathered with former Union and Confederate soldiers to promote reconciliation.
Another precursor to Mother’s Day came from the abolitionist and suffragette Julia Ward Howe. In 1870, Howe wrote the “Mother’s Day Proclamation,” a call to action that asked mothers to unite in promoting world peace. In 1873, Howe campaigned for a “Mother’s Peace Day” to be celebrated every June 2nd.
Other early Mother’s Day pioneers include Juliet Calhoun Blakely, a temperance activist who inspired a local Mother’s Day in Albion, Michigan, in the 1870s. The duo of Mary Towles Sasseen and Frank Hering, meanwhile, both worked to organize a Mothers’ Day in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some have even referred to Hering as “the father of Mothers’ Day.”
By 1912, many states, towns, and churches had adopted Mother’s Day as an annual holiday, and Jarvis had established the Mother’s Day International Association to help promote this cause. Her persistence paid off in 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson signed a measure, officially establishing the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.
And while not everyone might have the opportunity to give their mom a bouquet of flowers in person, they do call.
A study by US-based international calling firm VIP Communications found that call volume on Mother’s Day is 8 percent higher than on New Year's, 11 percent higher than on Valentine’s Day, and 62 percent up on Halloween.
