Oh, mother. She birthed you, changed you, fed you, held you; she made you cookies, or she taught you how to cut the cookies from the pre-made cookie dough, or she just let you eat the cookie dough; she took you to school, or she taught you herself from home, she helped you with your homework, except math because you were better than her at math; she made your clothes, or she took you to the store for the coolest fashions, or she didn’t because she had no taste in fashion, but you forgave her (20 years later); she rooted you on at games; she drove you to the dances, and picked you up too early; she told the best jokes, or she told the worst jokes; she never slept so she could spend time with you, she worked when you slept, or she came home late from working, but always made sure to kiss you good night before she had to go to bed; she knew the best way to take care of you when you were sick; she created comfort foods; she was your best friend, or not, because she was just straight up mom; the list can go on and on. Every mom is different, and every upbringing is different, but we all have mom’s, whether she is here with you today, or in your heart, the day of saying, thank you, and celebrating the woman: biological, adoptive, step-parent or guardian, who was, and is your mom.

Mother’s day is a greeting card holiday. That is what people say, but you may be surprised to know that it has a history pre-greeting card. Now, we’ll give a little disclaimer, it has a bit of a downer to it, a kind of surprising twist if you will, but regardless of how the original story turned out, we are grateful there is a day devoted to moms. Now, that we have your attention, we’ll take you through a brief history of mother’s day, and along the way we’d like to share some photos of Minoux jewelry to share with you just one of the amazing jewelry lines that we carry here at Presents of Mind.

Minoux is a local Portland jewelry line, and we just adore her style and craft. We think her designs are so pretty, and perfect as an introduction to our gifts as we countdown to mother’s day. In the next following weeks we plan to bring you interviews with local mom’s who create and craft some of the items in our store from clothing to jewelry. Along with the interviews, we will provide you with gift ideas, in case you need a little help.

Now, Mother’s Day 101…

The celebration of the mother goes back as far as ancient Egypt, and most likely earlier. If the Earth or all that is giving of new life is the “mother” than you can imagine that humans have been celebrating and honoring the mother since the dawn of our existence. Granted, the mothers that humans were honoring were not your run of the mill mamas, they were honoring Goddesses and deities. Yes, we know some of us grew up with mom’s that pretty much believed they were a Goddess, but that’s not what the Egyptians were thinking when they were honoring Isis, the mother of the Pharaohs. The Greeks honored Rhea, and the Roman’s took Rhea and renamed her Cybele, but these celebrations have little to do with how and what we celebrate today.

In the 1600′s England declared Mothering Day, this day was to be observed during Lenten Sunday. It was mainly focused towards the lives of the working classes. It was a day created for servants, and trades people, and those who had to work far from home, so they could return to their homes and spend the day with their families (although it was meant for everyone, those who had to work often had only this time to see their mothers). The mother was the guest of honor and she was given cakes and flowers.

Mothering Day did not cross over on the Mayflower nor did it journey on any vessel that traversed the Atlantic to the New Americas. It wasn’t till 1870 that Julia Ward Howe called for a day of mothers. Julia Ward Howe, was so concerned and appalled by the shear number of deaths and violence of the Civil War, that she called on mothers to create a day of peace, and to protest, “son’s killing sons.” It caught on for a bit but quickly died, still, her call for peace and the strength of mothers to protect and create peace did not go unheard. Anna Reeves Jarvis began to celebrate the day that had been previously set on June 2nd, in attempt to re-unite families who had been torn apart by the Civil war.

Anna Reeves Jarvis was an active member of her community who spent her time (in between raising her eleven children) organizing groups to help combat poor health most likely caused by poor sanitation. She created the Mother’s day work clubs where mother’s took a neutral stance on the civil war and nursed wounded soldiers.

Anna Marie Jarvis, daughter of Anna Reeves Jarvis, admired and loved her mother, and after her death in May of 1905, Anna Marie decided to create a day to honor her mother, and her efforts for peace. She started small at first, approaching the local churches. She later decided that the day should be expanded to all mothers. By 1908, in West Virginia the tradition of bringing white carnations (her mother’s favorite flower) to the church began. In 1910, she had petitioned for the second Sunday in May as Mother’s day, and it was at this time that the State of West Virgina recognized the day. Anna Marie began rigours constant petitioning, and eventually in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed the holiday into national recognition.

The traditional idea behind mother’s day was that the day, the second Sunday of May, would be spent in church and then afterwards boys and girls, men and women would sit and write letters to their mothers and bring them a carnation. Soon carnations shops began showing up everywhere. The carnations were in the colors of red and pink for mother’s who were living and the white carnation was for mother’s who had passed away.

By the 1920′s the greeting card companies began creating greeting cards centered on the celebration of mother’s day. This was appalling to Anna Marie Jarvis, who believed that greeting cards were a lazy approach to the letter writing, but the mother’s day greeting card business took off and everyone started buying cards for their mothers.

By 1924, Anna was so upset by the greeting card explosion that she began to petition to have the holiday abolished. In 1930 she was arrested for disturbing the peace at a carnation shop, during a mother’s day sale.

Sadly, and somewhat oddly, Anna M. Jarvis spent her entire life and her families inheritance on trying to abolish the holiday that she had worked so hard to create.

Well, we have certainly transformed the tradition of how we celebrate it today. You don’t see a mass amount of carnation stands on the street corners, and mother’s don’t always just receive a card from their children, but we still believe in honoring our mothers today, by cards or any type of gift that one would love to lavish on their mother.

Regardless of how Anna Marie Jarivs had it in her mind, we still to this day celebrate her mother’s day which takes place in the month (possibly the day) of her mother’s death so many years ago. We celebrate a day nationally and around the world to recognize and celebrate the women who birthed us; better yet, today we’ve expanded it, and acknowledge not just birth mother’s, but all the women who were and are mothers. We do wish we could assure Anna M. Jarvis that it isn’t just a commercial day, sure people buy things for their mother’s, but if only she knew that people still write their own letters, and they probably had people writing letters even then.

We carry so many homemade cards, and gifts from people who are at home or in their tiny studios pouring all of their love into each item, it’s hard to believe that there isn’t a sense of honoring as the artisan creates their card or piece of jewelry, and for some of us, who don’t know how to craft or have the same creative flare, these artists help us to find something unique and special, made lovingly for our unique and special mothers. You know who she is and if you want to make her a card or buy her a card, give her a carnation or buy her a gift, that is up to you.

But if you want to go the “commercial” route, we have something special for your mom at Presents of Mind, we even carry stationary for writing letters. So if you want to join us here we will be waiting with lots of advice and some beautiful gifts like the jewelry by Minoux, handmade with loving care in Portland, Oregon.

If you want to know more about mother’s day, you can check these sources: Mother’s Day History, Story of Anna Jarivs and the History Channel.