Celebrating Mother’s Day

Arriving on the second Sunday each May, Mother’s Day is a celebrated tradition that can trace its official roots back to before the Civil War.

According to the History Channel, a woman in that time named Ann Reeves Jarvis, of West Virginia, created ‘Mother’s Day Work Clubs’ to help teach women in the community how to take care of their children properly. After her passing in 1905, her daughter Anna Jarvis pushed to create a national holiday to honor the sacrifices that all mothers make for their children. In 1908, she secured financial contributions that allowed her to celebrate the day officially for the first time.

By 1912, many churches, towns, and states had adopted the holiday, and it was signed into measure by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914.

Different people all across the world have developed their own Mother’s Day traditions in one form or another over the years. According to Care.com, Brazil’s holiday includes performances by children, church gatherings, and large, multi-generational barbecues. In Japanese culture, mothers are revered for their gentle strength and children use red or white carnations as gifts on their holiday to represent that along with pampering them for the whole day.

Serbia, meanwhile, has an interesting tradition in which Children’s Day, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day are all celebrated on consecutive Sundays in December, and each of them involves a kind of game in which the honored one is tied up. Mom and dad tie the kids up on children’s day and the children must agree to behave before being let go. The kids get their chance the next week when they tie up their mother. She must promise to supply yummy treats and gifts to the kids. Finally the kids tie up dad, and he must promise presents.

In North America, Mother’s Day typically involves flowers, the most popular of which are roses, tulips, lilies, daffodils, orchids and azaleas, according to ProFlowers. One-fourth of the flower and plant purchases made for holidays occur at Mother’s Day, according to the Society of American Florists.

Of course, there is always breakfast in bed — a traditional surprise for mom.