History of Mother's Day

These days, we mothers expect to be feted at least once a year, on the official Mother's Day. We get breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner out, or our spouse and/or children fix us a meal. If we're lucky and there's enough money, we get gifts. If there's not enough money, we stress that we don't care about gifts and no one should bother because it's "just another day".

However, Mother's Day began in America in the 1860s not as a way to show appreciation to all the many mothers out there, but as an outcry by mothers against war, the Civil War particularly, due to the loss of life and the ravages of battle on those who survived. There was even a Mother's Day Proclamation, written in 1870 by Julia Ward Howe, who also wrote The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

So, on this day, whether you got more than ever or had to say you didn't want a thing, remember that this celebration, like many others, came out of something different. In a way, something grander than just a day of presents -- out of a love of life and those who live it, no matter whose children they might be.

J.M. Grant