Julia Ward Howe, author of the words to the Battle Hymn of the Republic, first suggested Mother's Day as a day dedicated to peace. In 1870, Ms. Howe attempted to issue a manifesto for peace at international conferences in London and Paris. In 1872, she started promoting a "Mother's Day for Peace" to be celebrated on June 2. By the next year, "Mother's Day for Peace" was celebrated in 18 cities. Some of these cities maintained the tradition for 30 years.
It was Juliet Calhoun Blakely, however, who was responsible for setting Mother's Day in motion. It was Sunday, May 11, and Mrs. Blakely's birthday, when the pastor of her church abruptly left his pulpit, upset by the behavior of his son. Mrs. Blakely stepped up to take over the service, and she invited other mothers to join her. Her sons were so moved by their mother's action that they returned home to Albion, Michigan every year to pay tribute to her birthday. They urged others to do the same with their mothers, and asked the church in Albion to set aside the second Sunday in May to honor all mothers.
Mother's Day became a national holiday in the United States in large part due to Anna Jarvis. Anna wanted to dedicate a day to honor all mothers, living and dead, because of her own mother, Mrs. Anna Reeves Jarvis. Mrs. Jarvis had been a key figure in the development of Mothers Friendship Day, part of the healing process of the Civil War. Anna persuaded her mother's church in Grafton, West Virginia to celebrate Mother's Day on the second anniversary of her mother's death, the second Sunday in May. The next year the celebration grew to include Philadelphia, where Anna herself lived.
Anna and her supporters wrote to ministers, evangelists, businessmen, and politicians in an effort to establish this special holiday. By 1911, Mother's Day was celebrated in almost every state in the U.S. In 1912, West Virginia became the first state to officially declare a Mother's Day, and President Woodrow Wilson made it official in 1914, when he prclaimed Mother’s Day a national holiday to be held each year on the second Sunday in May.
Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in May not only by the United States, but also by such other countries as Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Italy, and Turkey. In Spain, it is on December 8, and in France, on the last Sunday of May. In Britain, Mother's Day is called Mothering Sunday and has been celebrated since the
17th century.
