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According to ancient legend, our modern Mothers Day traditions are rooted in ancient festivals honoring mother goddesses.

Ancient Greeks honored Rhea, wife of Cronus and mother of several gods and goddesses. Cybele was the mother goddess the Romans worshipped. Nearly 250 years before the birth of Christ, they held ceremonies lasting three days from March 15 through March 18. Another legend suggests that early Christians adopted ceremonies honoring Cybele to venerate Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Fast forward across the centuries to England in the 1600s, where "Mothering Sunday," or "Mid-Lent Sunday" was observed on the fourth Sunday in Lent. Poor young English apprentices were encouraged by their wealthy masters to return home on Mothering Sunday and take their mothers small gifts or a mothering cake. Furmenty, or wheat grains boiled in sweet milk, sugar and spices was the special drink of the day.

The Scots preferred pancakes мейд of steeped peas fried in butter with salt and pepper called carling and so celebrated Carling Day to honor their mothers. They stored a mothering cake called simnel in the cupboard until Easter because of the strict Lenten fast.

Mother's Day in America Julia Ward Howe, author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," first suggested a national Mother's Day in 1872 as a day dedicated to peace, and organized Mothers Day meetings in Boston each year. Although Howe first suggested Mother's Day, history credits Ana Jarvis of Philadelphia with the nation wide celebration. Jarvis, extremely close to her mother was inconsolable after her death, and in 1907 began a campaign to establish a permanent national Mothers Day in the United States.

Jarvis first succeeded in persuading her mother's church in Grafton, WV to celebrate Mothers Day the second Sunday in May, the anniversary of her mother's death. The celebration spread to Philadelphia the following year.

In her quest to make Mothers Day a national holiday, Jarvis and her supporters sent a blizzard of letters to clergy, politicians, and businessmen. Their efforts were so successful that by 1911 every state in the country celebrated Mothers Day. President Woodrow Wilson, in 1914 officially designated the second Sunday in May, Mothers Day.

Jarvis enjoyed the sweetness of her hard-earned victory only briefly, as she saw her dream of a spiritual day honoring mothers turn into a secular commercial enterprise. Old age found Jarvis ill, claiming her vision and finally her property. She died a pauper in a Chester, PA sanitarium in 1948. Kindly friends paid her expenses.

While other countries celebrate Mother's Day at various times of the year, Denmark, Finland, Turkey, Belgium, Italy and Australia joined America in celebrating this day the second Sunday in May.

Mother's flowers Thanks again to Ana Jarvis, carnations, believed to be the symbol of mother love, are the most popular Mothers Day flowers, including roses. Honoring her mother's fondness for them, she supplied white carnations at the first Mothers Day celebration at the Grafton church. White carnations later came to symbolize remembrance for those who lost their mothers through death or distance.

Today, we honor our mothers with greeting cards, breakfast in bed, and a prayer of thanks.

Marianne L. Kelly Marianne L. Kelly is a journalist, editor and web content writer who has written on a wide variety of subjects. She also works with a web designer writing original content and re-writes, and is available for hire. For more information visit