Where Did It Come From? What’s It All About? Mother’s Day is
nothing new. The ancient Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks all
celebrated motherhood, usually setting aside a time each spring
for doing so. Instead of honoring their human mothers, though,
they focused their celebration on honoring the female gods they
worshiped. During the 1600s the church in England began
designating one of the Sundays in Lent as “Mothering Sunday.” On
that day, apprentices, indentured servants, and other poor
workers were allowed to leave their duties and return home to
visit their mothers. In addition to a sumptuous meal, mothers
received small gifts of flowers and cakes. As they moved to
North America, early settlers left the custom of “Mothering
Sunday” behind. However, the idea of honoring mothers was not
lost. In 1872, Julia Ward Howe (who had written “The Battle Hymn
of the Republic” a decade or so earlier during the U.S. Civil
War) suggested a national Mother’s Day observance as a way to
reunite the nation and enlist mothers