The First Mother’s Day

The First Mother’s Day

Richard Cavendish
May 10th, 1908

Richard Cavendish marks the birth of a day commemorating mothers.

Julia Ward Howe, of ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic’ fame, tried to start a Mother’s Day for Peace in America after the Civil War, but nothing much came of it. One of her allies, however, was Anna Reece Jarvis, who died in Philadelphia in 1905. A memorial service was held for her at the Methodist church in Grafton, West Virginia, where she had taught Sunday school, at which her daughter, Anna May Jarvis, a feminist and temperance activist, was struck by the idea of a national day to honour mothers.
Mother’s Day may have been partly inspired by Mothering Sunday, which is much older. Observed on the fourth Sunday in Lent, this was a Christian festival celebrating Mother Church, rather than individual mothers, but it was a time when families gathered at their local church, which meant that family members who had left home would see their mothers once again and would often take gifts for them.
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Richard Cavendish is a longstanding contributor to History Today, having penned dozens of the Months Past columns. He is also author of Kings and Queens: The Concise Guide.

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