Did you know women’s peace groups were the roots of “Mother’s Day”? A typical early activity was the coming together of groups of mothers whose sons had fought or died on opposite sides of the American Civil War. Yes, “Mother’s Day” has evolved over the years from “Mother’s Work Clubs, to “Mother’s Friendship Day,” to “Mother’s Day of Peace,” and finally on to our modern commercialized “Mother’s Day.”
Ann Reeves Jarvis
In the mid-1800s, Ann Reeves Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker and lifelong activist, organized “Mother’s Work Clubs” in West Virginia to correct unsanitary living conditions and to educate and help mothers in need. After the Civil War, she proposed “Mother’s Friendship Day” to promote peace between former Union and Confederate families.
Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis Birth Chart
Julia Ward Howe
Around 1870, Julia Ward Howe, the well-known poet and reformer who wrote “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,’ called for a “Mother’s Day of Peace.” She felt mothers should unite to prevent the cruelty of war and the waste of lives. Howe expressed this in her “Mother’s Day Proclamation” from 1870.
“Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of tears!… We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says “Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.”
~Julia Ward Howe, 1870
From her Mother’s Day Proclamation for Peace
(Full proclamation is near the end of this article)
Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day was celebrated on June 2nd. It was first proclaimed around 1870 by Howe’s “Mother’s Day Proclamation.” In 1872, Howe called for it to be observed nationally each year. She envisioned “Mother’s Day” as a call for pacifism and disarmament by women. Her version of Mother’s Day took place in Boston and other locations for about 30 years but quickly died in the years preceding World War I.
Julia Ward Howe Birth Chart
Anna Maria Reeves Jarvis
The modern “Mother’s Day” was established 36 years later by Anna Maria Jarvis, the daughter of Ann Reeves Jarvis. Still, the day she established differed significantly from what Howe and Anna’s mother had proposed.
Anna intended this day to honor her beloved mother, but it soon became commercialized and associated with sending cards and gifts. In protest against its growing commercialism, Anna spent her last years trying to abolish the holiday she had created. Anna failed.
Ann Maria Jarvis Birth Chart
Mother’s Day Becomes Official
On Saturday, May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson made the official announcement proclaiming Mother’s Day a national observance to be held each year on the second Sunday of May.
The Original Mother’s Day Proclamation
Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: “We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
“Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”
From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says, “Disarm, disarm! The sword is not the balance of justice.” Blood does not wipe out dishonor nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each learning after his own time, the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.”
The Best Way to Honor Your Mother
If only we could have a day each year dedicated to peace and disarmament. How Great that would be for our children! So, in the spirit of Julia Ward Howe’s original call, let’s make this and each “Mother’s Day” a time to dedicate ourselves to peace and disarmament. Let’s rise and protect our most vulnerable by calling for our leaders to shift the course of our nation. There’s no more urgent need than to address the pain and devastation brought on by violence in all of its forms in the US and around the world. There could not be a better way to honor our mothers.