happy mothers day

Happy Mother's Day!

Raise your hand if you know the history of Mother's Day. Until a

couple of days ago, I didn't. Then I heard about Mother's Day for

Peace and that the holiday was originally founded as part of the

anti-war movement.

In the United States, Mother's Day was originally suggested by poet

and social activist Julia Ward Howe. In 1870, after witnessing the

carnage of the American Civil War and the start of the

Franco-Prussian War, she wrote the original Mother's Day

Proclamation calling upon the women of the world to unite for

peace. This "Mother's Day Proclamation" would plant the seed for

what would eventually become a national holiday.

After writing the proclamation, Howe had it translated into many

languages and spent the next two years of her life distributing it

and speaking to women leaders all over the world. In her book

Reminiscences, Howe wrote, "Why do not the mothers of mankind

interfere in these matters to prevent the waste of that human life

of which they alone bear and know the cost?" She devoted much of

the next two years to this cause, and began holding annual

"Mother's Day" gatherings in Boston, Massachusetts and elsewhere.

In 1907, thirty-seven years after the proclamation was written,

women's rights activist Anna Jarvis began campaigning for the

establishment of a nationally observed Mother�s Day holiday. And in

1914, four years after Howe's death, President Woodrow Wilson

declared Mother's Day as a national holiday.

How come I never heard that before? That's just way too cool! It is

superior by several orders of magnitude to the sappy Hallmark holiday

it has become. Anyhoo, Mother's Day for Peace has teamed up with No

More Victims for a truly special "return to the roots" Mother's Day.

Follow the links above for more information.

And now I leave you with the Mother's Day proclamation being read by