How did the Mothers Day tradition start?
Well there seem to be a few answers to this. For the modern Mother’s Day it seems that 150 years ago Anna Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker, organised a an awareness day for poor health conditions in her community, a cause she believed would be best advocated by mothers. She called it “Mother’s Work Day.” “In 1905 when Anna Jarvis died, her daughter, also named Anna, began a campaign to memorialize the life work of her mother. Legend has it that young Anna remembered a Sunday school lesson that her mother gave in which she said, “I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mother’s day. There are many days for men, but none for mothers.” Anna began to lobby prominent businessmen like John Wannamaker, and politicians including Presidents Taft and Roosevelt to support her campaign to create a special day to honor mothers. At one of the first services organized to celebrate Anna’s mother in 1908, at her church in West Virginia, Anna handed out her mother’s favorite flower
