Mother's Day is an annual holiday in the United States that is celebrated on the second Sunday in May. It is a day established to recognizes mothers, motherhood and maternal bonds in general, as well the positive contributions that mothers make to society.

The first observances of "Mother's Day" in the U.S. were mostly celebrated by women in peace groups. These meetings were usually groups of mothers whose sons had fought or died on opposite sides of the American Civil War. There were a few local celebrations in the 1870's and the 1880's, but none of them resulted in a national observance day.

In 1868 Ann Jarvis created a committee to establish a "Mother's Friendship Day" whose focus was "to reunite families that had been divided during the Civil War". She wanted to expand "Mother's Friendship Day" into an annual memorial for mothers, however Jarvis died in 1905 before the celebration became popular.

In New York City, Julia Ward Howe led a "Mother's Day" anti-war observance in June 2, 1872, which was accompanied by a Mother's Day Proclamation. The Mother's Day observance, under Howe's personal sponsorship, continued in Boston for about 10 years, then it died out.

Several years later, a Mother's Day observance was held on May 13, 1877. This celebration was held in Albion, Michigan, over a dispute related to the temperance movement. According to local legend, Albion pioneer, Juliet Calhoun Blakeley, stepped up to complete the sermon of the Rev. Myron Daughterty. The reverend had become upset because an anti-temperance group had forced his son and two other temperance advocates to spend the night in a saloon and there they became publicly drunk. In the pulpit, Blakeley called on other mothers to join her. Blakeley's two sons, both traveling salesmen, were so moved that they vowed to return each year to pay tribute to her and embarked on a campaign to urge their business contacts to do likewise. At their urging, in the early 1880s, the Methodist Episcopal Church in Albion set aside the second Sunday in May to recognize the special contributions of mothers.

It is widely believed that Frank E. Hering, President of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, made the first public plea for "a national day to honor our mothers" in 1904.

Mother's Day, in its present form, was established by Anna Marie Jarvis (daughter of Ann Jarvis), following her mother's death on May 9, 1905. With the help of Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker, a small service was held in May 12, 1907 in the Andrew's Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia, where Anna's mother had taught Sunday school.

The first "official" service was in May 10, 1908 in the same church, accompanied by a larger ceremony at the Wanamaker Auditorium in Philadelphia. She then worked to establish Mother's Day first as a U.S. national holiday, and then also as an international holiday.

West Virginia, in 1910, was the first state to declare Mother's Day an official holiday, but the rest of the states quickly followed its lead. On May 8, 1914, the U.S. Congress passed a law making the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day.

On May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation, declaring the first national Mother's Day, as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war.

In 1934, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved a stamp commemorating the holiday.

In May 2008, the U.S. House of Representatives voted twice on a resolution commemorating Mother's Day, the first one being unanimous so that all congressmen would be on record showing support for Mother's Day.

The Grafton's church, where the first celebration was held, is now the International Mother's Day Shrine and is a National Historic Landmark.

Carnations and Mother's Day

Carnations have come to represent Mother's Day, since Anna Jarvis delivered 500 of them at its first celebration in 1908. Since that time many religious services have copied the custom of giving away carnations. This also started the custom of wearing a carnation on Mother's Day.

Anna Jarvis, chose the carnation because it was the favorite flower of her mother. Partly because of a shortage of white carnations, and also through the efforts to expand the sales of more types of flowers in Mother's Day, the florists promoted wearing a red carnation if your mother was living, or a white one if she was dead; this was tirelessly promoted until it made its way into the popular observations at churches.

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