Mothers Day - An historical perspective

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As Mother’s Day approaches and we get set to celebrate and recognise that most important and irreplaceable person in our life, it’s interesting to discover an older and more sombre meaning to this day that is now celebrated almost world-wide.

Mother’s Day has a number of different origins, many ancient, however, Mother's Day in the United States was first proclaimed around 1870 in Boston by Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation in response to the carnage of the American Civil War.

As originally envisioned, Howe's "Mother's Day" was a call for pacifism and disarmament by women. It’s chilling to note how relevant those words still are today.

Below is an excerpt of the original Mother's Day Proclamation:

Arise then...women of this day!

Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.

We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!

The sword of murder is not the balance of justice." Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.

As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace...

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality, may be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient and the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.