Many countries honor mothers by setting aside a day, usually in the spring, but the celebration has many origins.

The Mother’s Day we celebrate in the United States (second Sunday in May) is based primarily on the British celebration, Mothering Sunday. British families were encouraged to visit their mother’s church on that day as a means of bringing families together at least once a year.

In the United States, Mother’s Day was originally designed as a day of peace in protest against the Civil War. Julia Ward Howe wrote a Mother’s Day Proclamation calling for disarmament and peace in 1870. However, during the Civil War Ann Jarvis, a West Virginian began a movement to improve health and sanitation for Civil War soldiers on both sides of the conflict. She rallied women to help her, and, in 1868, Jarvis worked with other women to effect reconciliation between returning soldiers from both Confederate and Yankee armies.

In 1907, when Jarvis died, her daughter Anna b

 

Winners to be Announced Monday

The BayNet.com will award two Mother’s Day treats —
a facial at  at S-Kape Salon in Leonardtown and a piece
of jewelry from JF Harris for G & H Jewelers in California —
on Monday, May 12.  Winners are to be selected randomly
from contestants who described why their mothers are
the best as part of TBNC’s Mother’s Day contest.

egan an effort to create a memorial day for women and mothers. The very first celebration was May 10, 1908, in Grafton, W. Va., in the school where her mother taught. Grafton is home to the International Mother’s Day Shrine, and, in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed that Mother’s Day was a day of recognition for mothers whose sons had died in war.

According to Wikipedia, mothers had been honored long before Great Britain and the United Sates created special days for moms. The first celebration is thought to have been in ancient Greece around the time of the Vernal Equinox. Mothers were honored with a form of worship that was based on the festival of Cybele, a mother to Greek gods.

Romans had another day they called Matronalia in honor of the god Juno. However, the custom was to give mothers gifts on Juno’s day of worship.  Even today, some countries use Mother’s Day as a day of national worship and in lieu of Christmas.

This year, Mother’s Day will be Sunday, May 11. According to the National Restaurant Association, the day is the busiest day of the year as families, friends and, of course, moms to go out for dinner the world over.