Prior to 9 May 1914, Mother’s Day was not a recognised holiday. That all changed however when then-American president Woodrow Wilson issued a presidential proclamation declaring it a national holiday in the USA.
The idea of Mother’s Day is credited by some to Julia Ward Howe who, in 1872, called for women to join in support of disarmament and asked that 2 June 1872 be established as a ‘Mother’s Day for Peace’.
Many individual states in America celebrated Mother’s Day by 1911, but it was not until Wilson lobbied Congress in 1914 that Mother’s Day was officially set on the second Sunday of every May.
In his first Mother’s Day proclamation, Wilson stated that the holiday offered a chance to “[publicly express] our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.”
Mother’s Day has since become a special day all around the world for children and husbands to celebrate the person who is often the cornerstone of the family.
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