Understandably, and unavoidably, the first Mother’s Day after the loss of one’s mom is an emotional time. With those thoughts in mind I’m pleased to be able to share this story about the courage and foresight displayed by the women who helped found the Mother’s Day holiday over 100 years ago.
They say mothers know best! And so it always has been and will be; I just learned that Mother’s Day was started after the Civil War by women who had lost their sons during the war and who wanted the world to follow a path towards peace.
Mother’s Day Proclamation
by Julia Ward Howe, 1870
Arise, then… women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of tears!
We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience…
As men have often forsaken the plough and anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace… to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.
–Julia Ward Howe, 1870
Of course, the roots of such a primal holiday go back much further than the 1800’s.