Mothering Sunday came first
In Britain and Ireland, the day was once Mothering Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent. Christians were expected to visit their mother church, the main church or cathedral of their area, on that day, rather than the small local chapel. Young people working as servants away from home were often given the day off to go, and many picked wild flowers on the way to give to their MOTHER. A rich fruit cake called simnel cake became a traditional treat to bring; later it was decorated with eleven marzipan balls for the apostles, leaving out Judas.
The custom had faded by the 1900s. A vicar's daughter in Nottinghamshire, Constance Smith, helped revive it from 1914, and after the Second World War, with American influence, it slowly blended into Mother's Day, though in the UK it still falls in March or early April rather than in May.
The woman who came to regret it
The American Mother's Day was created by Anna Jarvis, whose mother, a community organiser in West Virginia, had once said she hoped someone would found a day to honour mothers. After her mother died in 1905, Anna campaigned for exactly that. The first services were held in May 1908, including one at her mother's church in Grafton, West Virginia, where she handed out white carnations, her mother's favourite flower. A custom grew up of wearing a coloured carnation for a mother who is alive and a white one for a mother who has died. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson made the second Sunday in May a national day.
Within a few years, Anna Jarvis hated what it had become. She wanted people to write a personal letter, not buy a printed CARD, and she attacked the florists, sweet makers and card companies who were selling the day. She spent the rest of her life and most of her money campaigning against it, and was once arrested for disrupting a meeting where carnations were being sold.
Mother's Day around the world
Countries celebrate on different dates. Mexico always keeps 10 May, whatever day of the week it falls on, and many schools put on shows. In Thailand, Mother's Day is on 12 August, the birthday of the late Queen Sirikit, and children give their mothers jasmine flowers. Much of the Arab world celebrates on 21 March, the first day of spring. In America, the writer Julia Ward Howe had called for a Mother's Day for peace as early as 1870, after the Civil War, and many a MUM in Britain now gets both kinds of card.
Our family page covers the words for the rest of the household.
Whatever the date, the traditions look alike: FLOWERS, a BOUQUET of ROSES or TULIPS, CHOCOLATES, a GIFT, BREAKFAST in bed or a family BRUNCH, and HUGS to show LOVE. It is a chance to PAMPER and SPOIL, to APPRECIATE and CHERISH the CARING and KINDNESS that make a mother SPECIAL, and for the whole FAMILY to feel GRATEFUL. Florists count it among the busiest days of their year.