History of Mother's Day Celebration

Mother's Day is celebrated on different days in many parts of the world. It’s a day set aside to honor mothers and motherhood.

In the U.S. Mother’s Day is a holiday celebrated on the second Sunday in May. It’s a day when children honor their mothers with cards, gifts, and flowers. Mother’s Day was first observed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1907, and is based on the suggestions of Julia Ward Howe in 1872 and Anna Jarvis in 1907.

In 1907, Anna M. Jarvis (1864-1948), a Philadelphia school teacher, began a movement to set up a national Mother's Day in honor of her mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis. She sought the help of hundreds of legislators and prominent businessmen to help create a special day to honor mothers. The first Mother's Day was observed at a church service honoring Anna's mother. At the service, Anna handed out her mother's favorite flowers, the white incarnations; representing sweetness, purity, and patience. Anna's dedication finally paid off in 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May as a national holiday in honor of mothers.

Mother's Day Spelling:

Why is it Mother’s Day? Because when it was established in 1912, Anna Jarvis, who filed the trademark for Mother’s Day and founded the Mother’s Day International Association,was very specific about the location of the apostrophe; it was to be a singular possessive, for each family to honor their mother, not a plural possessive commemorating all mothers in the world.

Here’s the difference: If I’m celebrating Mother’s Day (singular possessive), I am celebrating my mother. If I am celebrating Mothers’ Day (plural possessive), I am celebrating all mothers. If I’m celebrating Mothers Day (just plural, no possessive) I have no idea what I’m celebrating.

Many other countries celebrate their own Mother's Day at different times throughout the year. The United States celebrates Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May, as do Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia, and Belgium.

In the United States, Mother's Day remains one of the biggest days for the sale of flowers and greeting cards. It is also the biggest holiday for long-distance telephone calls.

Mother's Day is one of the most commercially successful U.S. holidays. According to the National Restaurant Association, Mother's Day is now the most popular day of the year to dine out at a restaurant in the United States.

• There are 84 million mothers in the U.S.
• The youngest mother on record was Lina Medina, who delivered a 6½-pound boy by cesarean section in Lima, Peru in 1939, at the age of 5 years and 7 months.
• The odds of a woman delivering twins is 1-in-33. Her odds of having triplets is approximately 1-in-539.
• August is the most popular month in which to have a baby.
• Kentucky has the highest percentage of women who are mothers at 67%. The national average is 57%.
• About 4 million women will have babies this year.
• The median age of a woman giving birth for the first time in the U.S. is 24.8.
• Daughters keep in closer contact with their mothers than do sons. (Pew Research)
• There are more phone calls made on Mother's Day than on any other day of the year. (Pew Research)
• The number of people calling their moms on Mother's Day has declined in recent years due to e-mail and other electronic means of communication.

A Mother's Advice

There are a few things, which are common to all the mothers around the world. They love their children and try their best to protect them from harm. Here's a list of some of the most common advice mothers give to their children:

• Make sure to change your underwear always; you never know when you might be in an accident.
• Don't make that face or it'll stay in that position.
• Be careful or else you'll put your eye out.
• What if everyone jumped off a bridge? Would you do it, too?
• You have enough dirt behind those ears to grow potatoes!
• Close the door! Were you born in a barn?
• If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all.
• Don't put that thing in your mouth; you don't know where it's been!
• You can catch more flies with honey, than with vinegar.
• Keep your chin up, it's not the end of the world.
• Life isn't always fair.
• Don't be too proud to ask for help when you need it.
  

Anna Jarvis was one of the country’s greatest advocates of motherhood, yet she never had children of her own. That didn’t stop her from making the celebration of Mother’s Day her lifelong mission. In fact, as the holiday took on a life of its own, Jarvis often expressed sadness over its growing commercialization. “I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit,” she is quoted as saying.

Job Description for a Mother

Just for Laughs ... an email that is frequently circulated.

POSITION: Mother, Mom, Mama


JOB DESCRIPTION: Long term, team players needed, for challenging permanent work in an often chaotic environment.


Candidates must possess excellent communication and organizational skills and be willing to work variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends and frequent 24 hour shifts on call.


Some overnight travel required, including trips to primitive camping sites on rainy weekends and endless sports tournaments in far away cities. Travel expenses not reimbursed. Extensive courier duties also required.


RESPONSIBILITIES: The rest of your life. Must be willing to be hated, at least temporarily, until someone needs $5.
Must be willing to bite tongue repeatedly. Also, must possess the physical stamina of a pack mule and be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds flat in case, this time, the screams from the backyard are not someone just crying wolf.
Must be willing to face stimulating technical challenges, such as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets and stuck zippers.
Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars and coordinate production of multiple homework projects.
Must have ability to plan and organize social gatherings for clients of all ages and mental outlooks.
Must be willing to be indispensable one minute, an embarrassment the next.
Must handle assembly and product safety testing of a half million cheap, plastic toys, and battery operated devices.
Must always hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.
Must assume final, complete accountability for the quality of the end product.

Responsibilities also include floor maintenance and janitorial work throughout the facility.


POSSIBILITY FOR ADVANCEMENT & PROMOTION: Virtually none. Your job is to remain in the same position for years, without complaining, constantly retraining and updating your skills, so that those in your charge can ultimately surpass you


PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE: None required unfortunately. On-the-job training offered on a continually exhausting basis.


WAGES AND COMPENSATION: Get this! You pay them! Offering frequent raises and bonuses. A balloon payment is due when they turn 18 because of the assumption that college will help them become financially independent.

When you die, you give them whatever is left. The oddest thing about this reverse-salary scheme is that you actually enjoy it and wish you could only do more.


BENEFITS: While no health or dental insurance, no pension, no tuition reimbursement, no paid holidays and no stock options are offered; this job supplies limitless opportunities for personal growth and free hugs for life if you play your cards right.