{"id":1916,"date":"2010-05-09T14:19:04","date_gmt":"2010-05-09T18:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iomaire.com\/?p=1916"},"modified":"2010-05-09T14:19:09","modified_gmt":"2010-05-09T18:19:09","slug":"the-history-of-mothers-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/2010\/05\/09\/the-history-of-mothers-day\/","title":{"rendered":"The History of Mother’s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today is Mother’s Day, which has its origins in Grafton, West Virginia in 1858. There, Anna Reeves Jarvis<\/a> organized a number of Mothers’ Work Day Clubs to improve health and sanitary issues in the towns of Webster, Grafton, Fetterman, Pruntytown, and Philippi. The clubs held fund-raisers to buy medicine for those who couldn’t afford it, helped families whose mothers suffered from tuberculosis, and inspected bottled milk and food for unsanitary practices. During the Civil War, the clubs provided medical care for soldiers on both sides of the war. In 1870, Julia Ward Howe<\/a>, who had written the song, Battle Hymn of the Republic<\/a><\/em>, an abolitionist hymn, published her thoughts on Mothers Day.<\/p>\n

Mother’s Day Proclamation<\/h4>\n

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts,
\nwhether our baptism be that of water or of fears!<\/p>\n

Say firmly: “We will not have great questions decided by
\nirrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking
\nwith carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be
\ntaken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach
\nthem of charity, mercy and patience.<\/p>\n

We women of one country will be too tender of those of another
\ncountry to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From
\nthe bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.
\nIt says “Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance
\nof justice.”<\/p>\n

Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession.
\nAs men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons
\nof war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a
\ngreat and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women,
\nto bewail and commemorate the dead.<\/p>\n

Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the
\nmeans whereby the great human family can live in peace, each
\nbearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
\nbut of God.<\/p>\n

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a
\ngeneral congress of women without limit of nationality may be
\nappointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at
\nthe earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the
\nalliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement
\nof international questions, the great and general interests of
\npeace.<\/p>\n

Julia Ward Howe
\nBoston
\n1870<\/p>\n

Mother’s Day of Peace<\/a> was celebrated in a small number of cities, including Boston, in the United States and in London and Geneva every year on June 2. The last one was held in 1912. Julia Ward Howe underwrote some of the cost of these celebrations, but others were independently organized.<\/p>\n

Anna Reeves Jarvis died on May 9, 1905 and her daughter, Anna Jarvis, embarked on a campaign to honor her mother by establishing a day in her memory. Today, Anna Reeves Jarvis <\/a>and the causes she fought for have largely been forgotten, buried in the commercialism of the holiday. If you follow the links in this post, however, you will discover another meaning of Mother’s Day, a meaning that very few people are aware of.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is Mother’s Day, which has its origins in Grafton, West Virginia in 1858. There, Anna Reeves Jarvis organized a number of Mothers’ Work Day Clubs to improve health and sanitary issues in the towns of Webster, Grafton, Fetterman, Pruntytown, …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1917,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916\/revisions\/1917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}