IT’S a special day to celebrate the gift and contributions of motherhood to life and society. It’s a day to thank God for mothers’ love, dedication, sacrifices, and hard work to raise their children. It’s also a day to trace back the origins of Mother’s Day in the United States to see its profound meaning and relevance today.
In 1870, Julia Ward Howe, an abolitionist best remembered for her poem, “Battle Hymn of the Republic, worked to establish a Mother’s Day Peace Day. In this celebration, she campaigned for peace and the eradication of war. She penned the Mother’s Day Proclamation that same year. Here is an excerpt of the powerful proclamation:
Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: “We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, our husbands shall not come to us, reeking carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.
From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says, “Disarm, disarm! The sword is not the balance of justice.” Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.
Inspired by the initial efforts of Julia Ward Howe, a woman named Ann Jarvis saw the need to organize mothers whose sons had fought or died on the opposite side of the American Civil War. She aimed to give emotional support to grieving mothers and encourage them to advocate for peace and the end of the war, as Howe did.
Ann Jarvis’ daughter, Anna Jarvis, continued this advocacy of peace by campaigning to establish Mother’s Day first as a U.S. national holiday and then later as an international holiday. In addition, she organized the first church service to honor mothers on May 10, 1908, in the St. Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia.
When President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation declaring the first national Mother’s Day as a day for the American people to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died of war, Anna Jarvis’ advocacy bear fruits. In 1934, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved a stamp commemorating the holiday.
When we look at the origins of Mother’s Day, we cannot help but see the profound intentions of this celebration. It’s not just about honoring mothers by giving flowers and cards and taking them to breakfast or dinner. It’s honoring their desire to see all children live in a peaceful and just world.
In her YouTube video post, Marianne Williamson, an American author, spiritual leader, and political activist asks us to reflect on the origins of Mother’s Day and see its relevance today. She urges us to claim the aspect of mother in us: to conceive, labor, and give birth to a new world.
“The world we live in is not sustainable,” she said. “It’s time for all of us to choose to be all mothers. Mother, to me, is a place of the human psyche. It’s not just women who have given birth or women who adopted children. It’s an aspect of consciousness, and we must now mother a new world. It’s time for us to claim the aspect of divine mother in us.”
Indeed, on this Mother’s Day, let’s pray for peace in every home and the world!
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The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.
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Fr. Rodel “Odey” Balagtas is the pastor of Incarnation Church in Glendale, California.
