On the second Sunday of May every year, people
in the United States celebrate the Mother’s Day. People thank mom on this day
in various ways such as gifts, cards, candy, flowers, a meal in a restaurant, a
short trip, or other treats, to not only Mom, but also mother figures including
grandmothers, great-grandmothers, stepmothers, and foster mothers.
Cards and other gifts are given to mothers
on Mother’s Day
How
people celebrate Mother’s Day in USA
Usually people give special cards or gifts
to their mother or mother figure. The common gifts on Mother’s Day are
chocolate, flowers, candy, clothing, jewelry, a beauty treatment or trip to a
spa, etc. Some families also choose to hold a special meal at home or in a
restaurant. For students, several days or weeks before Mother’s Day, their
schools will help them to prepare a handmade card or other small gifts for
their mothers.
Public
life on Mother’s Day in USA
As it is not a federal holiday,
organizations, businesses and stores are open or closed just as they are on any
other Sunday in the year on Mother’s Day. But restaurants may be busier than usual for
some people may take their whole families out for a treat.
Background
of Mother’s Day in USA
For the origins of Mother’s Day in USA,
different people believe different stories. For example, some people believe
that two women named Julia Ward Howe and Anna Jarvis played a key role in the
Mother’s Day tradition establishment in USA, but others believe Juliet Calhoun
Blakely started Mother’s Day in Albion, Michigan, in the late 1800s.
About 1870, to encourage pacifism and disarmament
amongst women, Julia Ward Howe called for Mother’s Day, which lasted for ten
years but died out after that.
In 1907, to celebrate in memory of her mom
Ann Jarvis who had organized “Mother’s Day Work Clubs” to change health and
cleanliness in the area she lived, Anna Jarvis begun her first private Mother’s
Day celebration in Grafton, West Virginia. Anna Jarvis aimed to make Mother’s
Day more widely recognized and was financially supported by a clothing merchant
from Philadelphia John Wanamaker later.
In 1908, Anna Jarvis arranged a service
which was attended by 407 children and their mothers in the Andrew’s Methodist
Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia, which also has become the
International Mother’s Day Shrine.
Mother’s
Day in 2013
The date for Mother’s Day in USA this year
is May 12, 2013.
