Happy Weekend/Happy Mother’s Day!!

Mothering Cake

If you want the actual recipe, Check out her blog here.

The history of Mother’s Day is centuries old and the earliest Mother’s Day celebrations can be traced back to the spring celebrations of ancient Greece in honor of Rhea, the Mother of the Gods.

Then in the early 1600’s England began celebrating “Mothering Sunday”, a day to honor the more “down-to-earth mothers” the ones we all have and love. This day was celebrated on the fourth Sunday in Lent. England, at that time had two very distinct classes of people – the very rich and the very poor. It was not uncommon for the poor to live in the homes of the wealthy so that they could be available to work for them 24 hours a day. On Mothering Sunday the servants were given the day off and encouraged to go home and spend the day with their mothers. A special cake, called The Mothering Cake was often made and used to create a festive atmosphere.

When the first English settlers came to America, they discontinued the tradition of Mothering Day. While the British holiday would live on, the American Mother’s Day would be invented – with an entirely new history – centuries later. One explanation for the settlers’ discontinuation of Mothering Day was that they just didn’t have time; they lived under harsh conditions and were forced to work long hours in order to survive. Another possibility, however, is that Mothering Day conflicted with their Puritan ideals. Fleeing England to practice a more conservative Christianity without being persecuted, the pilgrims ignored the more secular holidays, focusing instead on a no-frills devotion to God.

In the USA it was Julia Ward Howe, the author of the words to the Battle Hymn of the Republic, who came with the idea of an International Mother’s day in 1872. It is noticeable here that her objective behind this was not exactly to honor mothers but to celebrate the peace.

Another important name associated with present form of Mother’s Day celebrations is of Anna Jarvis. Anna Jarvis was the person who made lots of efforts for establishing Mother’s Day, as a national celebration. Jarvis held an annual gathering “Mother’s Friendship Day”, with an objective to heal the pain of the victims and those affected of the Civil War. After the death of her mother in 1905, Anna began a campaign for the establishment of an official Mother’s Day in order to commemorate and pay tribute to her mother.

It could be said that Anna Jarvis devoted her entire life making efforts to have Mother’s Day declared as a national holiday. She began her struggle in the spring of 1908. As her first step made in this direction she wrote to the Superintendent of Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia. This was the place where her mother had taught Sunday school classes for over 20 years. In her letter to the Superintendent she urged that a Mother’s Day service should be held in honor of her mother.

By the time of Anna M. Jarvis’s death, over 45 countries observed the Mother’s Day. The first Mother’s Day proclamation was issued by the governor of West Virginia in 1910. Oklahoma celebrated it in that same year. And by 1911 there was not a state in the Union that did not have its own observances for Mother’s Day. Soon it crossed the national boundary, as people in Mexico, Central America, South America, Canada, Japan China and Africa all joined the spree to celebrate a day for Mother love.

I wish you all a happy and restful weekend! Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms!