Each May in the United States, the US Postal Service sees over 140 million cards flying through on their way to moms all over the country. And that\u2019s not even counting all the flower and candy gifts sent, dinner reservations made, and special chores performed for the women who raised us!<\/p>\n
Hopefully you show your mom you appreciate you throughout the year, but how did the practice of setting aside a special day just for mothers come about in the first place?<\/p>\n
You may think of Mother\u2019s Day as a modern holiday, but in truth the practice of celebrating motherhood goes back to ancient Greece and Rome, where each year a festival was held in honor of the mother goddess.<\/p>\n
In 16th<\/sup> Century England, it was common for children to live away from home after a certain age, whether they were in boarding school, serving an apprenticeship, or working as live-in domestic servants. \u201cMothering Sunday\u201d was a time when it was customary for these young people to return home to visit family and attend their \u201cmother\u201d church.<\/p>\n You can\u2019t look into the history of Mother\u2019s Day without coming across the name of Julia Ward Howe. Howe, who write the famous \u201cBattle Hymn of the Republic\u201d during the American Civil War, also penned what she called \u201cThe Mother\u2019s Day Proclamation in 1870. This proclamation was less about celebrating mothers than it was a call to mothers to promote pacificism in the home (a cause dear to the anti-warm Howe\u2019s heart).<\/p>\n In response to Howe\u2019s proclamation, the city of Boston held a Mother\u2019s Day Peace Observance on the second Sunday of June in 1872, but Howe\u2019s efforts to make it an annual celebration nationally were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t until 1905 that Anna Jarvis, daughter of Ann Maria, an activist who worked with Julia Ward Howe), started down the path of forming the holiday we know today as Mother\u2019s Day. Jarvis\u2019s mother expressed a desire for a day to be set aside each year to honor mothers the world over, and in recognition of that wish, Jarvis began sending carnations (her mother\u2019s favorite flower) to women in her church.<\/p>\n Eventually Jarvis enlisted the help of others to help her petition the government to make Mother\u2019s Day an official holiday, and on May 8, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a resolution which stated that Mother\u2019s Day would be on the second Sunday in May.<\/p>\n Mother\u2019s Day has already been put in place, but you can honor your own mother by sending her a citrus gift basket<\/a> from Hale Groves! Food gifts are a wonderful alternative to flowers for Mother\u2019s Day because they\u2019re different, smell just as wonderful and look just as pretty, and are always very much appreciated!<\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking for healthy gift ideas for mom, stick with a citrus gift box or other fruit basket. If Mom has a sweet tooth or loves to entertain, check out our gift baskets that contain other gourmet foods from our bakery and candy kitchen. With all the effort Mom has put into raising us (and occasionally even spoiling us!), it makes sense that you\u2019ll want to get her a meaningful gift to celebrate her special day. That\u2019s where gourmet fruit boxes and fruit baskets from Hale Groves come in!<\/p>\nMother\u2019s Day\u2019s Start in the United States<\/h3>\n
The Official Founder of Mother\u2019s Day in the US<\/h3>\n
How You Can Celebrate Mom with Hale Groves<\/h3>\n