Mother’s Day Humor, Trivia and History

Dedicated to all mothers, past present and future.

—Moon River Pearls

• Roughly 96% of Americans take part in Mother's Day (source: Hallmark)
• Mother's Day is the busiest day of the year for many restaurants
• Mother's Day is widely reported as the peak day of the year for long distance telephone calls
• Average amount spent on mother in 2004: $98.64 (National Retail Trade Federation)
• Total spending for Mother’s Day 2004 was estimated at $10.43 billion (National Retail Federation)
• One in four in a survey of 500 respondents said they had forgotten Mother’s Day in the past. (Proflowers.com)
• Traditional gifts: cards, flowers, candy, jewelry, restaurant meals
• Human mothers aren’t the only ones who sacrifice for their offspring: Sockeye salmon go through a metamorphosis during spawning that radically changes the shape of their heads. So serious is this change that they can not eat, and literally give up their lives so that their eggs can mature. In fact, the mothers' spent bodies become part of a food chain that benefits their developing young. Killdeers, a type of bird, fake broken wings to tempt predators away from their nests. Belding’s ground squirrel mothers risk their lives by sending out alarm calls when predators get too close to their children, shifting the attention to themselves.  Clearly, all types of moms are amazing! (www.care2.com)

The Ancients Honor Mothers

While today in the United States it is customary to set aside one day a year to honor mothers, Mother’s Day is a relatively young tradition, one that only became a national holiday in 1914. (The restaurants in the 1800s missed out on some nice brunch business!)

While we Americans can be a bit slow sometimes, the ancients, as usual, had the right idea. The earliest tributes to mothers date back to the Romans, who celebrated the Great Mother of Gods, Cybele, an ancient fertility goddess associated with cities and strength, in a days-long celebration involving ritual sacrifice, while the Greeks honored Rhea, the wife of Cronus and the mother of many gods including Poseiden and Zeus, at their annual spring festival. (Moon River Pearls is especially fond of Rhea, who is represented by the symbol of the moon.) Even England got in on the act well before the United States by honoring mothers on “Mothering Sunday,” a tradition that began in the 1600s. (Okay, to be fair, we Americans weren’t around yet.)

Mother’s Day in America

Julia Ward Howe, a reformer, writer and poet (she penned “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”) is credited as the first American to suggest a national holiday honoring mothers. Distressed by the effects of war, which she witnessed firsthand, Mrs. Howe called upon women to join together and oppose war in all its forms. She believed mothers could best address the issue of solving conflicts and working toward peace, and in 1870 campaigned for national recognition of an official Mother’s Day for Peace. Sadly, Mrs. Howe was unsuccessful in her attempt.

Another strong and forward-thinking woman, and in fact an influence for Julia Howe, was an Appalachian homemaker named Anna Jarvis. Mrs. Jarvis established a number of women’s clubs in West Virginia to improve the sanitation conditions her neighbors were living under before the Civil War. During the war, Mrs. Jarvis attempted to emphasize and eradicate the war’s horrible effects—both emotional and physical—by organizing women in what she called “Mother’s Work Days,” or “Mother’s Friendship Days,” whereby women would pitch in and help those affected by war; her clubs remained neutral, and treated both Union and Confederate soldiers. After her husband’s death in 1902, Mrs. Jarvis moved her family to Philadelphia, where she lived until her death in 1905.

In 1907, Ms. Jarvis’s daughter, also named Anna, started her own crusade to honor mothers after her own mother’s death. Anna remembered that her mother once said there were many days devoted to men but none for mothers, and that she would like to see a day set aside to honor mothers both living and dead. Spurred by this memory, Anna organized a church service for her mother. The first Mother’s Day was held in Grafton, West Virginia, in 1907 in the church where the elder Anna had taught Sunday School. Anna handed out white carnations, her mother’s favorite flower.

Anna began an intense letter-writing campaign, lobbying hard, along with her supporters, for national recognition of a mother’s day to honor all American mothers. Her hard work paid off by 1911, when Mother’s Day was celebrated in almost every state, and finally in 1914, when President Woodrow Wilson declared Mother’s Day a national holiday to be held each year on the second Sunday in May, the anniversary of the first Anna Jarvis’ death.

Mother’s Day is now observed in countries around the world. Carnations are widely recognized as the official Mother’s Day flower. Today, pink carnations are worn to honor living mothers and white to honor those who have died.

While we think mothers are best honored with homemade cards and breakfast in bed, a gorgeous strand of pearls or a pair of dangle pearl earrings can’t hurt!  

Quotes on Mothers and Mothering

I don't have a bank account, because I don't know my mother's maiden name.

Paula Poundstone

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.

Mark Twain

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.

Calvin Trillin
US columnist (1935 - )

Never rely on the glory of the morning nor the smiles of your mother-in-law.

Japanese Proverb

Sooner or later we all quote our mothers.

Bern Williams

Some are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same.

Pearl Buck, quoted in O Magazine, May 2003
US novelist in China (1892 - 1973)

The art of mothering is to teach the art of living to children.

Elain Heffner, O Magazine, May 2003

The most important thing she'd learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.

Jill Churchill, O Magazine, May 2003

A mother understands what a child does not say.

Jewish Proverb

No matter how old a mother is, she watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement.

Florida Scott-Maxwell

A man's mother is his misfortune, but his wife is his fault.

Walter Bagehot
English economist & journalist (1826 - 1877)