[Nfbk] mothers day history

[Joey Couch]

I got this off of another list I am on and I thought some of you all
maybe intrested in giving this a read.
From: David Globe <dglobe at cogeco.ca>

May 8th

Mother's Day
Credit for starting Mother's Day goes to a schoolteacher named Anna Jarvis.
Her campaign to organize a holiday began as a way to honor the memory of her

own mother, Anna Maria Reeves Jarvis. The elder Jarvis had devoted much of
her life to the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church of Grafton, West
Virginia, and in May 1908, at Anna Jarvis's urging, the church held a
service honoring mothers. Anna Jarvis, who lived in Philadelphia, also
convinced merchant John Wanamaker to join her cause in establishing Mother's

Day, and he held an afternoon service in his store. Within just a couple of
years, the custom had spread to other states.

At one of the first Mother's Day services, Jarvis distributed white
carnations, her mother's favorite flower. Many people still follow the
tradition of giving and wearing carnations on Mother's Day-white flowers in
memory of deceased mothers, and brightly colored ones for living mothers.

Jarvis and her supporters convinced ministers, politicians, and businessmen
to support the goal of starting a national observance. On May 8, 1914,
Congress passed a joint resolution designating the second Sunday in May as
Mother's Day. The next day, President Woodrow Wilson issued the first
Mother's
Day presidential proclamation, calling for "a public expression of our love
and reverence for the mothers of our country."

Joey Couch
phone 606-216-8033.
email ki4vjd at gmail.com
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