Note to our students:
In spite of what you might see or hear on the
web or on the news, Mother's Day has no ties to the ancient
cultures. It is a modern holiday. Can you imagine the ancient Greeks or
the ancient Romans honoring their mother simply because she was their
mother?
People love to credit the ancients with everything.
But they did not invent everything. There's lots of room for
new inventions, and new holidays are being created all the time. Perhaps the
next one will be created by you!
Here's how Mother's Day got
started: Anna Jarvis, an American woman, believed
that all of us forget sometimes to thank our Moms for all they do for us.
(True enough!) Anna Jarvis worked very hard to convince the American
people that we needed one day set aside for each of us to do just that, to
truly and sincerely thank our own Mom, to strengthen family bonds.
In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson issued the first
Mother's Day proclamation, stating that the observance serves as a
"public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our
country." (This is more of a political statement than an explanation
of the holiday, but it made it official.)
Here's a site to visit that is full of Mother's Day
ideas: Kids
Turn Central
