Mothers' Day Coming Up
Here's how Mothers' Day started:
The First Mother's Day proclaimed in 1870 by Julia Ward Howe
was a passionate demand for disarmament and peace.
Mother's Day Proclamation
by Julia Ward Howe, 1870
Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or tears!
Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have taught them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another 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 of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail & commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesars but of God.
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.
Julia didn't get the Mothers' Day for Peace that she hoped for. Here's where we are now:
(from About.com)
- about 96% of American consumers take part in some way in Mother's Day
- Mother's Day is widely reported as the peak day of the year for long distance telephone calls
- Mother's Day is the busiest day of the year for many restaurants
5 comments:
My, what a quintessential American result for how Mother's Day turned out. I prefer the original reasoning. Perhaps we can all send cards to mothers we know who have lost their sons and husbands in Iraq.
"Mother's Day is the busiest day of the year for many restaurants"
So the fam isn't pitching in to cook dinner on Mother's Day, huh?
The day is also the busiest day at the New York Botanical Garden. Somehow, even though I had never been there before, I felt compelled to go there for my first mother's day. Must be some kind of Spring new birth thing. I thought it was always that crowded there.
And Ken, let's also give a thought to all of those moms who have lost their daughter's and wives.
Deb
Oops! So right you are, Deb. Sorry for my blatent sexism.
Just slightly off topic, but a bit of interesting trivia... Mother's Day *is* the busiest day of the year for telephone calls. Father's Day is the busiest day of the year for *collect* telephone calls. My very best wishes to all Mother's. Motherhood is the highest of all human possibilities. I honour each and every one of you with all my heart.
Thank you all for keeping this space politically correct. I can't do it all myself!
Thank you, Daddy from BC, for the fascinating trivia and the salute to moms.
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