Celebrations of Mother’s Day differ throughout the world but they stem from Greek springtime celebrations in honor of Rhea, Mother of the Gods. Mother’s Day in the United States, as we know it today, was inspired by the British version and was first suggested by Julie Ward Howe, author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Howe wrote the “Mother’s Day Proclamation” in 1870. Further, Ann Marie Jarvis, worked to establish a “Mother’s Sanitation Day” in 1858, as an effort to honor mothers and improve sanitation during the Civil War. Mother’s Day as we know it today, in the United States, was first celebrated in a Methodist church because of the efforts of Jarvis’s daughter Anna, on May 10, 1908. It was made legal by Presidential Proclamation in 1914, when the 2nd Sunday in May was set aside to celebrate Mother’s Day.
Mother’s Day is on the following days:
May 13, 2012
May 12, 2013
May 11, 2014
May 10, 2015
May 8, 2016
May 14, 2017
May 13, 2018
May 12, 2019
May 10, 2020
