This Sunday is Mother’s Day, a day for us to sit back and reflect on what terrors we were as children and then call our own mothers and apologize profusely for our behavior back then. :)
Some believe the origins of Mother’s Day lie with Mothering Sunday, a tradition from the 16th century where individuals would return to their “mother church” for a special service, and held on the fourth Sunday of Lent. As the years passed, it became a day when domestic servants were given the day off to visit their mother church and attend services in the company of their own mothers and family members. Children would pick flowers to give to their mothers and the tradition went from one of religion, to one honoring the mother with small gifts.
However in the United States Mother’s Day has a completely different origin. In the years prior to the American Civil War a woman by the name of Ann Reeves Jarvis would hold “Mothers’ Day Work Clubs” to educate women and help improve health and sanitation. After Jarvis’s death in 1905 her daughter, Anna Jarvis, noticed that most holidays were celebratory of the accomplishments of men. In the early 20th century Anna Jarvis began petitioning for a national holiday to celebrate mothers everywhere.
After years of independent celebrations across the country, Jarvis led a letter writing campaign to former and current presidents, and in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed the day into law and in the United States, Mother’s Day is now celebrated on the second Sunday in May.
That makes this Sunday, May 11, 2014 a momentous day indeed, as it is the 100 year anniversary of Mother’s Day celebrations in the United States.
Here are some fun Mother’s Day facts for you:
- Nearly $671 million is spent on Mother’s Day Cards each year.
- Americans spend $1.9 billion on flowers for their mothers on Mother’s Day.
- 69% of all gifts purchased on Mother’s Day are flowers.
- 13% of mothers buy flowers for themselves on Mother’s Day
- Of all flowers purchased for holidays, one quarter are purchased for Mother’s Day.
The unofficial flower for Mother’s Day is the carnation. Wearing a red carnation symbolizes that your mother is still alive, a white carnation symbolizes that she is dead.- There are 2 billion mothers in the world.
- 4.3 babies are born each second
- Mother’s Day is celebrated in nearly 50 countries world wide.
- In the former Yugoslavia, children would tie their mothers up on Mother’s Day and in order to be freed, she had to pay them with treats
- The number of phone calls increases by nearly 37% on Mother’s Day, and according to Pew Research Center, more calls are made on Mother’s Day than any other day of the year.
Tell me, what is the ONE THING you did as a child that you should apologize to your mother for?
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