Mother’s Day History

"Breakfast in Bed" by Mary Cassatt 1897

In just a few short days it will be Mother’s Day; that one special day of the year when we publicly recognize and honor the woman (or these day’s possible the man) who gives us guidance, direction and most importantly, love. And if you’re like me, you’ve always celebrated the day without ever knowing the history behind it.

Ancient Egyptians celebrated the goddess Isis, their Mother deity, with an annual festival, while in Turkey the Phrygian goddess Cybele was honored and in Greece, Rhea was considered the Mother of the Gods. These earlier festivals became so bawdy they eventually died out and were replaced with more conservative and sedate affairs.

Then in 17th century England, a celebration of the Virgin Mary grew to include all Mothers and became known as Mothering Day. But after English settlers came to America, the celebration was discontinued until Julia Ward Howe introduced her Mother’s Day Proclamation in 1870. Howe who wrote the “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” was so upset over the Civil War, she wanted a way for all Mothers to come together and protest the killings.

Inspired by Howe, a few years later Anna Reeves Jarvis led a group of West Virginia Mothers in reuniting families divided by the Civil War. This event was named Mother’s Friendship Day. After her death, her daughter, Anna M. Jarvis organized the first official Mother’s Day celebration held simultaneously in Grafton, West Virginia and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 10th, 1908. Finally in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared and signed into the law that the second Sunday in May would forever be known as Mother’s Day.

White carnations have long been associated with Mother’s Day. And while every woman, whether a Mother or not, loves getting flowers, nothing quite lets your Mom know how special she is like a piece of custom jewelry. It’s so easy to commemorate a milestone in her life with her favorite stone set in a necklace, ring or brooch. Let’s get started today so she’ll know how much she is loved and appreciated!

Custom made 12 stone mother'g ring

Girl Power in the Bronze Age!

Example of Bronze Age Jewelry found in Moesgaard Museum
Photo by Dorte Sandorff

Recently outside Vienna Austria the skeletal remains of a woman believe to be a metal worker from the Bronze Age have been unearthed. This tremendous discovery challenges the long held belief that prehistoric women only preformed the less physical and strenuous tasks associated with day to day life. This exciting find now questions long held concepts concerning the division of labor during these primordial ages.

While the pelvic bones were not included in the grave, researchers are confident the remains are of a 45 to 60 year old woman based on the shape of the skull and the size of the lower jawbone.

Contained in the grave was an anvil, hammers, flint chisels and several pieces of dress jewelry. Lower Austrian state archaeologist Dr. Ernst Lauermann said, “It was normal in those days for a person to be buried with the items that were part of their daily working lives.” These tools have led researchers to believe her occupation was a fine metal worker, an uncommon practice for a woman during this time period. Until this discovery, metalworking had always been considered a male profession because of the physicality involved since metals, then like now, were used for more than just making jewelry.

While any ancient burial site from the Bronze Age is considered a great find and a window into how past civilizations lived and ultimately formed our future; this one indicates that earlier cultures were perhaps not as patriarchal as once thought; though some scholars still believe that the significance of these artifacts is unknown. The editor of British Archaeology magazine Mike Pitts stated, “Sometimes the objects could relate to the individual’s profession but they could equally be there because they looked good or were put into the grave by relatives and didn’t belong to the individual.”

So while we will never know the truth, it’s awesome to think that women were challenging societal mores even more than 5,000 years ago!

To read more on this subject and see a photo of the burial site and skeletal remains, follow this link to the MailOnline News.