Jo-Anne Ibell asked via our online form, When did Mothers day start? We have a look at this question and work out where it originated from.
Modern Mothers day, as we know it, originated in the United States. The initiative came from Anna Jarvis in the early 20th century.
Anna Jarvis started this celebration in 1908 when she held a memorial for her mother at St Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia. She campaigned in 1905 to make Mother;s Day a recognised holiday in the USA.
Anna Jarvis was totally against the way Mother’s Day was commercialised, this was’t the point. It was actually a dedication to peace and to address public health issues.
Mothers Day in the UK is celebrated on the Forth Sunday in Lent, in 2020 this would have been the 22nd March. Morthers Day in the UK is unrelated to the American Holiday and most historians believe that it evolved from a medieval practice of visiting one’s mother church annually on Laetare Sunday.
Further Reading
- Mothering Sunday – Wikipedia
- When is Mother’s Day in the UK – The Sun
- Mothering Sunday in the UK – Timeanddate.com
