So, yeah, it’s Mother’s Day. A glorious day for some and a painful reminder for others. Here’s some history about the holiday.
This day, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, has it origins in the 1870s, when Boston reformer Julia Ward Howe decided she would create a “Mothers’ Day” to bring women together to end war. But it was Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia, whose mother had organized women’s groups to promote friendship and health, who originated Mother’s Day. On May 12, 1907, she held a memorial service at her late mother’s church in Grafton, West Virginia. Within five years virtually every state was observing the day, and in 1914 U.S. Pres. Woodrow Wilson made it a national holiday. What had originally been primarily a day of honor became associated with the sending of cards and the giving of gifts, however, and, in protest against its commercialization, Jarvis spent the last years of her life trying to abolish the holiday she had brought into being.
Festivals honoring mothers and mother goddesses date to ancient times. The Phrygians held a festival for Cybele, the Great Mother of the Gods, as did the Greeks for the goddess Rhea.
Soulful Shared Stories Sunday Writing Prompt ~ Write about a time you felt the most nurtured and loved. Who was loving up on you? Did it have a lasting effect?