JPK Huson 1863
Brev. Brig. Gen'l
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2012
- Location
- Central Pennsylvania
Yes, it's a kind of gooey image but that's ok. Our ancestors were nothing if not emotive, whether in writing or art and that's ok too. We're just, plain allowed to be gooey about mothers one day a year.
Mother's Day seems to have popped up any time a society twigged to the notion that without mothers, no one would have survived long enough for history to be written. It's a good thing someone noticed. Kids need a good keeper, said societies anywhere. Thanks Moms, for ensuring the survival of the human race.
Moms; " Well you're welcome, we're sure. We got the little dears this far, please try not to break them. " That part hasn't always worked out as well but a deal's a deal's, we did our part.
1 The festival of Hilaria was brought through Greece into Rome two hundred and fifty years before Christ’s birth. Hilaria, the first known celebration of motherhood was held on the Ides of March ( no wonder Ceasar felt some foreboding ), citizens brought offerings to temples. No word on flowers, chocolates or sacrificed goats as offerings. Women being so elevated was irritating so priest took over the festival but it was too late. We've been getting diagnosed with hysteria ever since.
2 If Roman priests hated it, which they did, the Christian religion hated Hilaria more. They kept the whole Ides of March thing but turned the festival into a celebration of Mother Church- you couldn’t honor your mother although gifts were sure accepted. Gifts to the church where you were baptized signified devotion to the church, wiping out any dangers mothers would be too influential.
3 " Mothering Sunday “ arrived a little later. It was a day set aside for apprentices bound to masters to be free for a day and go home. To Mom. There was general hilarity there, too. The traditional dishes of this Mothering Sunday was furmety- wheat boiled in sugary, spiced milk , a kind of pancake called carling – pease and butter, fried- gave Mothering Sunday the name “ Carling Day “. You could bring a gift if you could afford one.
4 One of the two women who claimed credit for originating Mother’s Day as we know it tragically died in childbirth. Mary Towles Sasson of Henderson, Kentucky declared she herself came up with the idea of Mother’s Day. Her mother’s birthday, April 20th was chosen and she in May, 1887 Mary and her Sunday School class .
5 Mary Sasson of Henderson, Kentucky received a very snippy letter from a West Virginia woman named Ann Jarvis, the daughter of woman who conceived another kind of mother's day, be sure. It became a raging feud that carried on for years. ( My guess is they unwittingly did nearly the same thing at almost the same time )
6 Meanwhile Ann Jarvis, ‘ the ‘ originator of Mother’s Day had herself incorporated. She was The International Mother’s Day association. Inspired by her mother’s death in 1904, Ann spent the next 10 years writing letters, raising heck and generally badgering the government until Woodrow Wilson caved. On May 8, 1914 he officially declared Mother’s Day a national holiday.
7 Neither Ann Jarvis nor Mary Towels Sasson in fact originated Mother’s Day although torqued it into this day as we know it. In 1864 Mary Ann Reeves Jarvis’s daughter Ann was born. With the ACW raging Mary Ann became a crusader against war in general and this one in particular. Mothers were losing sons and would lose more unless this thing called war would end once and forever. In order to pull it off, Mary Ann Reeves Jarvis decided the best way was to encourage us to begin at ‘ like ‘. “ Mother’s Friendship “ was begun to bring together Union and Confederate mothers. She did and it was as much anti-war, anti-men-blowing-each-other-up as it was a day to honor mothers.
Mary Ann Reeves Jarvis ‘s anti-war, pro-friendship and unity movement inspired her daughter Ann to carry on her work.
8 Mother and daughter objected vociferously to the commercializing of Mother’s Friendship Day and Mother’s Day. Mary Ann Reeves insisted her message was one of unity and commercializing it took away from the mission. Daughter Ann insisted the day was for honoring mothers, not making money. Since men ran most companies no one listened but they gave it a shot. Card companies, flower sellers and chocolate manufacturers made around a gazillion bucks, Ann Jarvis died a pauper.
9. Remember Carling Day? How many burned and soggy pancakes has anyone enjoyed on their Mother’s Day in the past 100 years? Pease or flour who’s counting? These wonderful cook-Mom-breakfast-in-bed meals are as much offerings to childhood goddesses as anything dragged into a Roman temple.
10 Remember the awful death in childbirth of Mary Towels Sasson, who probably did indeed invent Mother's Day without knowing someone else was working on it too? Ann Jarvis never children.