You see, long before Mother’s Day became an international celebration of cards, bouquets, brunches, and gifts—a one-day momfest that here in the U.S. has grown into a $20-billion-dollar-a-year industry—this holiday was rooted, at least, here in America, in “radical feminism” and progressive Christianity. Arise then...women of this day! Howe, a Boston poet and the author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” was likely pissed off the day she wrote those words, the first line of a poem called “A Mother’s Day Proclamation.” In 1870, the well-known abolitionist, still grieving over the Civil War and angry about the start of the Franco-Prussian War, began to envision a new cause, a rallying of the world’s women to rise up and unite for peace. After writing the proclamation, Howe worked to have the poem translated into numerous languages and spent the next two years of her life traveling the globe, distributing her Mother’s Day poem and speaking to women about the cause. Because of Howe’s work, communities throughout Massachusetts and in other parts of New England began organizing annual Mother’s Day gatherings, gatherings that were grounded in faith, feminism, and protest. Howe, in addition to Ann Reeves Jarvis, a West Virginian Methodist and social activist who organized Mother’s Day Work Clubs in hopes of educating poor women about health and hygiene, inspired a movement that would one day, in 1908, lead Jarvis’s daughter, Anna Jarvis, to organize the first Mother’s Day celebrations in Grafton, West Virginia and Philadelphia. Jarvis’s dedication to the cause, an idea that, for her, was a tribute to her motherled a growing number of states and cities to observe the celebration. Then, in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson made the holiday official, declaring the second Sunday in May to be Mother’s Day, a nationally recognized commemoration. However, nine years later, after seeing her idea turn into a holiday gold mine, Jarvis began using her voice to protest against commercialization of Mother’s Day, even calling for boycotts. “This is not what I intended. I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit.” Howe would have likely been even more disappointed. Her proclamation for Mother’s Day included a much loftier vision than mere sentiment: “Whereby the great human family can live in peace,” she wrote, “each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God … To promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.” Though today’s celebration of Mother’s Day is a far cry from what Howe hoped it would be, maybe we have encountered a truer spirit of how she envisioned this holiday in these days leading up to its 100th anniversary.
Posted on: Sun, 11 May 2014 12:10:32 +0000
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