page_title: Mother's Day (United States)
section_title: Establishment of holiday
hierarchical_section_title: Mother's Day (United States) / History / Establishment of holiday
caption_attribution_description: General notes: This proclamation has been reproduced on National Archives Microfilm Publication T1223.
context_page_description: Mother's Day in the United States is an annual holiday celebrated on the second Sunday in May. Mother's Day recognizes mothers, motherhood and maternal bonds in general, as well as the positive contributions that they make to society. It was established by Anna Jarvis, with the first official Mother's Day celebrated at St. Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, on May 10, 1908. In the United States, Mother's Day complements similar celebrations honoring family members, such as Father's Day, Siblings Day and Grandparents Day.
  Internationally, there are a large variety of Mother's Day celebrations with different origins and traditions, some now also having been influenced by this more recent American tradition.
context_section_description: In its present form, Mother's Day was established by Anna Jarvis with the help of Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker following the death of her mother, Ann Jarvis, on May 9, 1905. Jarvis never mentioned Howe or Mothering Sunday, and she never mentioned any connection to the Protestant school celebrations, always claiming that the creation of Mother's Day was hers alone.
  A small service was held on May 12, 1907 in the Andrew's Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia, where Anna's mother had been teaching Sunday school. The first "official" service was on May 10, 1908, in the same church, accompanied by a larger ceremony in the Wanamaker Auditorium in the Wanamaker's store in Philadelphia. The next year the day was reported to be widely celebrated in New York.
  Jarvis then campaigned to establish Mother's Day first as a U.S. national holiday and then later as an international holiday. The holiday was declared officially by the state of West Virginia in 1910, and the rest of the states followed quickly.
  On May 10, 1913, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution calling on all federal government officials (from the president down) to wear a white carnation the following day in observance of Mother's Day. On May 8, 1914, the U.S. Congress passed a law designating the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day and requesting a proclamation. The next day, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation declaring the first national Mother's Day as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war.  In 1934, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved a stamp commemorating the holiday.
  In May 2008, the U.S. House of Representatives voted twice on a resolution commemorating Mother's Day, the first one being passed without a dissenting vote (21 members not voting).  The Grafton church, where the first celebration was held, is now the International Mother's Day Shrine and is a National Historic Landmark.
caption: President Wilson's Mother's Day Proclamation of May 9, 1914
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