How did Mother's Day begin, anyway?

The custom of honoring mothers goes back at least as far as 17th-century England, which celebrated (and still celebrates) Mothering Sunday, celebrated the 4th Sunday of Lent.

... but, in America Mother's Day was first suggested in the year 1872, by a well-known woman, Julia Ward Howe (she wrote the words to a famous hymn - The Battle Hymn of the Republic). There was already a day in May dedicated to peace, and every year Mrs. Howe would hold organized Mother's Day meetings in Boston, Massachusets.

In 1907, a Philadelphia woman by the name of Ana Jarvis, began a campaign to establish a national Mother's Day. Ms. Jarvis persuaded her mother's church in Grafton, West Virginia to celebrate Mother's Day on the second anniversary of her own dear mother's death, the 2nd Sunday of May. By the next year Mother's Day was also celebrated throughout Philadelphia.

Ana Jarvis and her supporters began to write to everyone they could think of, with the idea of establishing a national Mother's Day. They was successful! By 1911 Mother's Day was celebrated in almost every American state. President Woodrow Wilson, in 1914, made the official announcement proclaiming Mother's Day as a national holiday that was to be held each year on the 2nd Sunday of May.