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High Spirits
Mother’s Day Observance
Meet Anna Marie Jarvis, the founder of the holiday we’ve celebrated every second Sunday of May since 1914.
Millions of American families will be celebrating Mother’s Day this month with carnations, chocolates, greeting cards, and all the usual paraphernalia of a well-established national holiday.
The date of this annual festivity — the second Sunday in May — was set by an act of Congress in 1914 followed by a proclamation issued by President Woodrow Wilson declaring the first national Mother’s Day that year. Politicians have been getting in on the act ever since. As recently as 2008 the U.S. House of Representatives voted twice for a resolution “celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother’s Day.” The first vote was unanimous so that all congressmen would be on record for supporting motherhood. In that sort of legislative mood it was surprising that the House did not also vote unanimously for apple pie!
Given the secular background of this political schmaltz, it may seem rather unpromising to explore the question, what are the religious roots of Mother’s Day? But there are spiritual answers that can be traced back to such sources as the book of the prophet Isaiah; the 19th chapter of St. John’s Gospel; the medieval traditions of Catholic Europe; and a Protestant church in Grafton, West Virginia. It’s a complicated story that predates Woodrow Wilson by many centuries.
Let’s work backward from St. Andrew’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, and a member of its congregation, Anna Marie Jarvis, who is often described as the founder of Mother’s Day in the United States. After much prayer she organized a small service on May 12, 1907, to honor her recently deceased mother, who had taught in the church Sunday school. Anna Marie Jarvis later began campaigning for the day to be recognized as a public holiday, to celebrate the lives of all mothers. This was officially commemorated by the state of West Virginia in 1910, by many other states in the next four years, and turned into a national holiday by the U.S. Congress in 1914.
The only spiritual thread that ran through these events was that they had been started by prayers on a Sunday. There was also a vague connection with the traditions of Mothering Sunday celebrations in other parts of the world, whose origins can be traced back to the foot of the Cross on the first Good Friday.
One of the most moving moments of the Crucifixion story is related in John’s gospel, when Jesus looks down from the Cross at his mother:
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing there he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home. (John 19: 26-27)
The scene is perhaps the most poignant illustration in Scripture of maternal love, mingling with filial love, blessed by God’s love at a time of pain and suffering.
Watching her son die in agony on the Cross must have been a heartbreaking moment for Mary. Jesus could not bear it either. For put in blunt contemporary language the request he was making to his disciple John was “Please get her out of here.” And that was what John did, taking Mary into his own home from that hour and looking after her as if she were his own mother.
The words from the Cross “Here is your mother” were interpreted by early Christians to establish Mary as the Mother of the Church, a title formally confirmed by Pope Paul VI. The church itself was frequently spoken of as a mother who nourishes and guides her children, hence the term Mother Church, which is thought to derive from a famous passage in the book of Isaiah when the prophet compares ancient Jerusalem to a mother comforting her children (Isaiah 66: 11-13).
This maternal imagery recurs time and again in the writings of medieval mystics. For example, abbots and pastors were urged by the 12th-century monk Bernard of Clairvaux to be mothers to those in their care, showing affection and letting their breasts swell with the milk of encouragement and sympathy. From such ideas there gradually emerged the concept that some large ecclesiastical foundations, particularly the great cathedrals of Europe, were mother churches. Their offspring, which in modern language would be called church plants, became known as daughter churches, often linked by the umbilical chord of funding and by physical proximity.
Gratitude to these mother churches from their daughter churches was the origin of Mothering Sunday, although it began life in the 15th century under the name of Laetare Sunday, the Latin word for “to rejoice” or “to be grateful.”
The rejoicings were particularly welcome in the middle of the penitential austerities of Lent. Hungry and thirsty pilgrims who had walked from the daughter churches to their mother cathedrals were allowed a day off from fasting. Cakes and ale were liberally supplied to them, so much so that two alternative names for Mothering Sunday became Refreshment Sunday and Simnel Sunday. The latter referred to the popular simnel cake (a fruit and marzipan confection) that was particularly enjoyed by children who came on the walk from the daughter church to the mother cathedral, accompanied by their human mothers.
Far from being lost in the mists of time, these traditions have survived into the 21st century. One of the surviving locations is St. Matthew’s Westminster, my own parish church. It is, like several others in this part of London, called a daughter church of the nearby Westminster Abbey. On Mothering Sunday, aka Laetare, Refreshment, or Simnel Sunday, the children from our congregation present their mothers with Mother’s Day daffodils at the end of the main service. They then carry a simnel cake round the corner to Westminster Abbey, where they present it to the Dean, head of our mother church, as a mark of prayerful gratitude.
This may seem a long way from Anna Jarvis, the mother of Mother’s Day in America. But the inspiration for her tireless campaign with state politicians and congressmen for the national holiday started from prayer and worship. By the end of her life she so hated the secular commercialization of the holiday that she prayed for a return to its spiritual roots. So she had bittersweet emotions about her creation, possibly compounded by the fact that she had no children of her own.
Yet the reality of motherhood, well reflected in those traditions that go back to the foot of the Cross, is that it can sometimes be a bittersweet journey of maternal pain mingled with joy, gratitude, and celebration. Perhaps these ancient spiritual truths go deeper than the secular artificiality of the modern Mother’s Day.
About the Author
Jonathan Aitken, The American Spectator’s High Spirits columnist, is most recently author of John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace (Crossway Books). His biographies include Charles W. Colson: A Life Redeemed (Doubleday) and Nixon: A Life, now available in a new paperback edition (Regnery).
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Little Mary Sunshine| 5.7.10 @ 7:23AM
In 1934 the U.S. Post office issued a stamp engraved with a stylized image of "Whistler's Mother," --painting titled "Arrangement in Grey and Black" by James McNeill Whistler--accompanied by the slogan "In Memory and In Honor of the Mothers of America."
The stamp was a poorly-drawn cartoon.
Whistler's Mother, an American Icon, deserves another stamp designed by a more competent artist. Please contact Postal Service with this request.
"Whistler's Mother" is THE symbol of American Motherhood. Time for another Mother's Day stamp bearing her image.
Gerald Clark| 5.7.10 @ 7:40AM
I have the "Whistler's Mother" stamp in my collection.
The postal artist could not have her looking into a void, as her son showed her in his iconic painting. So the poorly-conceived and poorly-executed stamp shows the mother staring at a vase of flowers.
At the time, the American Art Guild was so incensed that it complained vociferously to the press.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 5.7.10 @ 8:11AM
The problem with all the holidays we celebrate is that it's too easy to get one started. For instance, out of nowhere we have the communist holiday, Kwanzaa, which is celebrated by the mainstream media mavens as if it really is a holiday. Follow that up with a racist invention called Black History Month, another holiday celebrated ad nauseum by the popular press and you get the picture.
Personally I look forward to a day when we can celebrate our politicians with National Bastard Day. That will be a day the citizens will relate to with pitchfork gatherings and feigned storming of the castles. Perhaps November 4th would be the appropriate day to celebrate.
Hank| 5.7.10 @ 11:55AM
Attention American Spectator Readers:
When you see the name Bill Hussein O' Stalin, do not pause to read his post. He always gets off the subject, and he has nothing to say.
And, to add to the excruciating chore of reading his drivel, the tone of his comments always carry the voice of a grouchy old man
Nick| 5.7.10 @ 1:25PM
Hank,
I think you are ripping me off.
I do the PSAs around here. And only regarding the bleeding heart liberals.
Besides, don't you have a sense of humor? Mr. O'Stalin's posts are pretty funny.
Conan the Grammarian| 5.7.10 @ 8:38AM
I hate Mother's Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day, etc. These holidays engender expectations that cannot necessarily be met. I have told my children, Krom Conansson and Berta Conansdottir, that they should not celebrate Father's Day. No way. No how. As long as we are talking about the Bible, if God wanted a Mother's Day, he would have instituted one. As far as I know, there are only seven major Biblical (OT) Feasts, none of which honor Mom or Dad or a lover.
John Shore | 5.7.10 @ 2:13PM
If you're someone---like, say, Conan above---whom Mother's Day leaves feeling less than entirely ... Hallmarky, you might want to check out the Facebook group, Happy Crappy Mother's Day: http://bitly.net/cya7ah
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maverick muse| 5.10.10 @ 10:25AM
Paying motherhood homage is as ancient as anything, preceding the patriarchal domineering cultural influences from Hebrews, Christians or Arabs.
You failed to mention the politically incorrect point that the full-time at-home Motherhood homemaker-educator which initiated the holiday is a rare occupation in America now.
There is no American surprise that Mother's Day is treated as another commercialization gimmick. Same goes for every tradition, be it a Christian Holy Day or commemorative National Memorial Holiday. All are met by profiteering opportunist pimps prostituting the ideal into a material object for sale. The corruption of spirit wouldn't happen without a willing public, not merely ready but EAGER to forfeit conscious spirit for ease. Anything for convenience and comfort. The same goes for national awareness of political meaning, taking for example the Constitution or the concepts that merge Liberty with personal responsibility.
Simply, a good visit with your mom means the world, particularly if you cook and clean a simple lunch since the worst crowded and poor restaurant service day to eat-out would be Mothers' Day.
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Appleby| 5.10.10 @ 4:24PM
Call your mother and apologize. If you dont know what you did wrong, be assured she does.
Oh, and admit to her that the older you get, the more you appreciate the time she evacuated you and your sisters from a hurricane-flooded house by motorboat -- when she was 25 and the oldest of you four was 5 and the youngest under a year, and not a one of you with adult supervision because she had to drive a boat she had never driven before, through waters that could contain or conceal anything at all.
Particularly if you are 25 and you cannot possibly imagine yourself the mother of four babies at all, much less saving their lives in a motorboat.
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Bugrong| 8.8.11 @ 1:54PM
Our Moms are the precious gift we ever had. They are the ones that have given us the unconditional love and it is appropriate that we give back what they have given and sacrificed to us. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there.
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Cute quotes gal | 8.13.11 @ 6:34PM
I truly enjoyed this post. Thanks
Gina | 9.4.11 @ 8:34AM
Very nice background on the day. My church's minister usually avoid Proverbs 31 on that day, except to point out how the women he knows are amazing, just like that one. :)
cutey | 11.7.11 @ 10:26AM
wow, I never really knew where Mothers day came from before.
Harry Roberts | 5.2.12 @ 12:45AM
I try to make everyday a mothers day. No cards, no commercial nonesense, and I get a great feed out of it!