How Mother's Day Has Evolved - History and information

Mother's Day is now one of the three biggest greeting card sending events in the world. It can be traced back to the Greeks, who during their spring ceremonies, gave thanks to Rhea; Rhea was regarded as the mother of many deities. The Roman's worshipped Cybele, the Mother of The Gods. Later still Mother's Day began as a celebration for Christians and slowly over time it was adopted as a day of recognition for mothers and became know as Mothering Sunday.In the U.K Mothering Sunday is referred to as Mother's Day and is celebrated on the forth Sunday of Lent.

It can be traced back to the tradition in the U.K of returning back to your mother's church once a year. It is thought that during this occasion families would meet up and see their mothers. Some churches still regard this as a special day as they regarded it as a day of giving thanks to Mary the mother of Jesus. Employers began to give their young workers the day off to go home and see their families on that date and it has now firmly established itself as Mothers Day.

Not all countries celebrate Mother's Day on the same day. The United States of America mark the event on the second Sunday in May. It is thought that it is based upon the British tradition and that the idea of celebrating the day was inspired by Julia Ward Howe. The idea was taken further forward by Ann Jarvis, who strove hard to improve sanitation during the Civil War. When she died her daughter Anna started a petition to found a memorial day for women.

The first memorial day was held in Grafton on the 10th May 1908 and was referred to as Mother's Day. It was held in the church that Ann Jarvis taught and then spread out across the rest of America to become known as what we now celebrate as Mother's Day.

People would celebrate Mother's Day by going to church and sending letters to their mothers. It then progressed to sending cards, gifts and flowers. As it became more commercialized, Anna Jarvis filed a lawsuit in 1923 to try to stop a festival as she felt the occasion was being trivialized. It is said that before she died, Anna admitted regret at having started the Mother's Day tradition. She felt that people no longer understood its meaning or significance.

In the following years Mother's Day has grown rapidly with millions of Mother's Day cards and gifts exchanged on this day each year. It is now the most popular day of the year to eat out and there are a record number of phone calls made as children phone home to thank their mothers.

Submitted by:
Andrew Gibson is MD of The Card and Gift Company. It is one of the fastest growing online greetings cards websites.To see an example of why The Card and Gift Company is growing so rapidly have a look at http://www.thecardandgiftcompany.co.uk/Cards/Mothers-Day-Cards/Humour