Mothers Day! I love this holiday! It really started having another meaning to me when I actually became a mother back in 2000. Yep, September 26th 2000 was a beautiful day for me and my husband. We had the most beautiful baby boy on that day and nothing has been the same since. It’s amazing how having a baby will make your life change so quickly. Suddenly you have this little being needing YOU. You change the way you do EVERYTHING.
I can say that becoming a mother is such a beautiful and rewarding time in your life. Now, my son is 22 years old and next year will be getting married. What? When did that happen? Those little years really went by fast. It was just yesterday he was in first grade! Right? But, being a mother also means that you have to take a step back after you have done all the raising and nurturing and let them figure it out and let them grow into responsible adults. I personally think that our son has taken on this role very well. Some more growing to do, but he has turned out to be an awesome young man.
So, with all of that said, just where did Mothers Day come from? I thought it might be kind of interesting to research a little on how this day originated. According to the US tradition, the day was first celebrated in the year 1908 when Anna Jarvis had a memorial in W. Virginia for her mother. Her mother had passed away in the year 1905, and ever since then she tried hard to make the day known as a recognized holiday. In the beginning, she wanted to dedicate the day only to her mother, but soon the campaign turned into a campaign to honor all mothers.
Her mother was a peace activist who was involved in humanitarian work for soldiers of the Civil War. As a result of various efforts by Anna Jarvis, the day was recognized throughout various states in honor of mothers. In the year 1914, a proclamation was signed by Woodrow Wilson to officially declare the second Sunday of May as Mother’s Day.
Now, did you know that the “carnation” is the official flower for Mothers Day? Because the carnation was her mother’s favorite flower, Anna Jarvis chose it to represent Mother Day. She distributed 500 white carnations at the first official Mother’s Day service.
Over the years some things changed. Florist began touting the wearing of a red carnation if one’s mother is alive and a white one if she is deceased. The florist repeated this so often that it has become custom. Many churches give away carnations on Mothers Day to the women in the congregation.
I don’t know what year this all started as a tradition but I personally remember when I was a child we wore roses. I remember waking up and getting ready in our Sunday best and off we ran outside to pick red roses from the family rose bush to wear. I also remember we had a giant white rose bush in our front yard and we always had to get a bud off of that one for my dad to wear. I loved this tradition as a child. You never went to church without a rose. But now we do hand out carnations and that’s just fine too.
The history I read on the Mother’s Day beginning is that Anna Jarvis so disliked the commercialization of the holiday that she spent the later years in her life trying to get the holiday removed from the calendar. I also remember a lot of the time my dad would buy my mom a store bought corsage made out of a Orchid. They were always so beautiful. You usually could buy those from the local grocery store. I will say thought its not just about our own moms that we celebrate, but all moms in our lives. Cards and flowers are also bought for grandmothers, sisters and mothers-in-laws too. So no matter what your “flower tradition” is we hope you have a super great Mother’s Day. Take time to be with her and love on her cause she really does need that.