Mother's Day The 2nd Sunday In May

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Mother's Day is to honor Mrs. Anna Reeves Jarvis, one of the mothers in a small town in West Virginia in the United States, （http://www.watchescat.com/B-Replica-IWC-Watches-45.html）during the Civil War. She got the women from both sides — whose husband or son was for the North or against the North — to agree to meet together just to start friendships. And so Mrs. Jarvis started a monthly "Mothers' Friendship Meeting". As the women met and talked and sometimes prayed1 together for the safe return of their husbands and sons from the War, they began to form real friendships. When the Civil War finally ended in 1865, the soldiers returned home. When the returning Northern soldiers, who wore the blue uniforms2 of the Union, would meet men wearing the gray uniforms of the Confederacy3, arguments and fights wouldbreak out. Mrs. Jarvis had an idea. If the mothers of those angry men had been able to become friends through meeting and talking together, wouldn' t the same thing work with their husbands and sons? Her plan was to ask each mother in her Meeting group and as many other mothers as possible to invite ...
... one or more of the returned soldiers to the next Mother's Friendship Meeting. Every one of the soldiers was invited. Since these were mostly Christians4 or from Christian backgrounds, they sang the familiar songs about God's love for them. And of course the husbands and sons were thankful that God had brought them home from war and all its dangers. The attitude5 of the meeting changed. And by the end many of the men who had been hating and arguing with each other for the past three years on the street of the town shook hands and walked out the door of that Mothers' Friendship Meeting together as friends. The whole attitude of the town changed from that day. Amazing6 grace7!But Mrs. Jarvis wasn't satisfied with the success in that one small town. The mothers there had worked hard for many years to bring about real peace there. Now she wanted to do something for the other mothers in West Virginia who along with their families had also suffered8 during the long years of the Civil War. Mrs. Jarvis felt that it was the mothers, as the teachers in the home, who could help the younger children overcome9 the feelings of animosity10 and hatred that had grown up between the North and the South. A day to honor all mothers from the North and South could encourage the mothers as they worked for a true peace and love. Hadn' t Jesus Christ taught them to love their enemies? But in spite of her vision11 and all her years of work, Mrs. Anna Reeves Jarvis died without ever finding enough official support to bring about the dream of a National Mother's Day.Then in 1907 on the first anniversary12 of Mrs. Anna Reeves Jarvis's death, her daughter, Miss Anne Jarvis's church held a special service to honor all mothers. She then took up her mother's crusade13 for a Mother's Day. She quit14 her job, and used the money she had saved to go anywhere she could, talking about Mother's Day. She went first to different churches, and many agreed to honor mothers once a year. But Anne wanted a National Mother' s Day to be on the date of her own mother' s birthday as memorial15 to her. She talked to everyone, to the city officials in Philadelphia, to the government of the state of Pennsylvania, to the people in her hometown in West Virginia, to the government leaders of West Virginia, to leaders in other states, and to those in the United States Government in Washington, D.C. Finally, in 1914 the United States Congress recommended16 that May 10th, the birthday of Mrs. Anna Reeves Jarvis, which came on the second Sunday in May that year, be called Mother's Day in recognition17 of the influence18 mothers have in the making of better citizens. President Woodrow Wilson then proclaimed'1' that the birthday of Mrs. Anna Reeves Jarvis, the "mother of Mother's Day", would become the National Day of the United States. From then on, the second Sunday in May would be Mother's Day in memory of the work Mrs. Jarvis had done to bring families together after the Civil War, her work to bring the whole North and South together, her work to honor all the mothers of America throughout history and on into the future, but most of all to honor Mrs. Anna Reeves Jarvis as America's National Mother. President Wilson asked that the American people fly the United States flag from public buildings and homes on that day, as he said, as a public expression of our love and reverence20 for the mothers of our country.Now for each Mother's Day, an American Mother's Day Committee21 considers the names of many women who have been successful mothers and who have other important accomplishments22. From these, they choose a "Mother of the Year".We' 11 look now at what happens on Mother' s Day. As with most American holidays, Mother's Day has both a personal side and a commercial23 side — a part that is based on love for mothers, and another part which is based on, well, a love to make money.The outstanding24 thing about Mother's Day has to be the sending of Mother's Day cards. For Mother's Day most people want to at least show love to their mother, and a beautiful card will do this. And many cards do have the words "I love you, Mom." So even for those who are not comfortable speaking of love to their mother, they can say it with a card. And between one hundred and two hundred million Americans do this each year.But there's another slogan25 that has been made famous by one kind of American business, the florist (the person who sells flowers). It is, "Say it with flowers". For Mother's Day any kind of flowers are appreciated26 by mothers, but florists urge27 you to send red roses, which are both beautiful and very expensive.Besides sending cards or flowers, or buying a gift for Mother's Day, what else do people do? One custom for many years has been to wear a carnation21 flower on Mother' s Day, a white one if your mother is not living and a red one if she is.Well, one more thing happens on Mother's Day — phone calls, millions of them from long distance away. Mother's Day morning the telephone lines are not too busy, since so many mothers will be in church until about noon. But from about one o'clock until five or so in the afternoon, it may be difficult to make a long-distance telephone call to any place in America. It seems everyone with a mother somewhere is using the telephone then. In the past, there have been more telephone calls made in the United States on Mother' s Day than on any other day of the year.（http://www.watchescat.com/）