Mother’s Day: An Anti-War Holiday 

By Jack R. Johnson 06.2020

Here are a few facts to keep in mind on Mother’s Day.

Our current celebration actually originates from a woman who wrote what is arguably one of the most famous war anthems of all time—“The Battle Hymn of the Republic”.

Her name was Julia Ward Howe. In 1872, Julia Howe started our current Mother’s Day tradition, specifically dedicated to world peace because she had become so distraught by the death and carnage of the Civil War. In her announcement, she called on mothers everywhere to come together and protest what she saw as the futility of their sons’ killing. She called for an international Mother's Day celebrating peace and motherhood.

Here are some of her forceful words, set in verse:

“Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will 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 been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.

From the bosom of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: ‘Disarm! Disarm!’”

After Howe’s death, a West Virginia women’s group led by Anna Reeves Jarvis began to celebrate an adaptation of Howe’s holiday. And on May 10, 1908, the first official Mother's Day celebration took place at Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, and a church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The West Virginia event drew a congregation of 407 and Anna Jarvis arranged for white carnations—her Mother’s favorite flower—to adorn the patrons. Two carnations were given to every Mother in attendance. Today, white carnations are used to honor deceased mothers, while pink or red carnations pay tribute to mothers who are still alive.

Happy Mother’s Day!