MOTHER'S DAY IN COLOGNE

Mother's Day: ancient origins and historical development

 The origin of Mother's Day, contrary to what one might suspect given today's commercialisation, does not lie in retail or the advertising industry. Rather, it harks back to antiquity and thus to the ancient Greeks, who practised fertility worship with a festival in honour of Rhea, the mother of Zeus.

The Mother's Day of today was shaped by the English and US women's movements. In 1865, American Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis founded a mothers' movement called Mothers' Friendships Day. 

Here mothers could exchange ideas on current topics. A mothers„ peace day initiative “Peace And Motherhood" was launched in 1870 by Julia Ward Howe with the aim of raising awareness that sons should no longer be sacrificed to wars.

 Since the 1960s, various women's movements and organisations have emerged in Europe. In addition to peace projects and more women's rights, they also campaigned for better educational opportunities for girls. For greater recognition of mothers, the International Council of Women, founded in the 1890s, advocated.

 The daughter of Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis, the Methodist Anna Marie Jarvis, is considered the creator of the modern Mother's Day.  On 12 May 1907, she organised a Memorial Mothers Day Meeting in Grafton, West Virginia, USA – the day fell on the Sunday after the second anniversary of her mother's death. A devotional service dedicated to mothers was held again the following year. A tradition quickly developed from this, and Anna Marie Jarvis set herself the goal of creating an official Mother's Day.

She launched an initiative for the introduction of an official public holiday in honour of mothers and wrote letters to politicians, business leaders, clergy and women's associations. By 1909, Mother's Day was already being celebrated in 45 US states. The US Congress passed the „joint resolution designating the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day“ on May 8, 1914, and so, for the first time in 1914, Mother's Day was celebrated as a national holiday.

 However, with the increasing popularity and commercialisation of Mother's Day, its founder turned away from the movement. She fought unsuccessfully for the abolition of the holiday. 

Internationalisation

The „Mother's Day institution“ is gaining worldwide popularity. The idea of honouring mothers with a special day has also gained more and more followers internationally.

In Great Britain, the concept of Mother's Day was quickly adopted and spread from there to Switzerland (1917), Finland and Norway (1918), Sweden (1919), and Austria (1924) followed.

In the years 1922/1923, the movement also reached Germany: Posters bearing the inscription „Honour Thy Mother“ adorned shop windows and, under the leadership of the Association of German Florists, this day was celebrated as „Day of Flower Wishes“. 

The first German Mother's Day took place on 13 May 1923.

Naturally, such a holiday also gave various groups and political ideologies an occasion to link it to their respective goals and mindsets. For example, the Working Group for Public Health began promoting Mother's Day in 1926 and established it as an official public holiday. In the GDR, however, International Women's Day was celebrated on 8 March – and Mother's Day was omitted.

In post-war Germany, the Federal Republic began its first Mothering Sunday in 1950. 

Even though Mother's Day is celebrated differently from country to country and from family to family, it is overwhelmingly and predominantly about Expression of gratitude and family awareness.

Source: Hannoversche.de