Yesterday we honored the one woman that always manages to see us through thick and thin.  We may not always see eye to eye with her, but we know that she has our best interest at heart.  Yes, we’re talking about dear old MOM!

Through the years I have heard that Mother’s Day was a holiday created by Hallmark and other companies to increase their sales. I decided to do a little digging into history and here is what I found…

Celebrations of Mother’s can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans.  They held festivals to honor the mother Goddesses, Rhea and Cybele. The modern American Mother’s Day started in the years prior to the Civil War (1861-1865) by a lady named Ann Reeves Jarvis of West Virginia. She was responsible for setting up mother’s day work clubs that sought to improve sanitary conditions to help reduce infant mortality. It wasn’t until 1914 that Mother’s Day became an official U.S. holiday.

I also found some FUN FACTS regarding the holiday:

1. One quarter of the flowers purchased throughout the year are purchased for Mother’s Day.
2. Carnations are the official Mother’s Day flower.
3. Pink and red carnations are to be given to all living Mother’s and white carnations are to be given to the departed Mother’s.
4. The word Mother, in most languages, begins with “M.”
5. 122 million phone calls are made to Mom, on Mother’s Day, in the U.S.A.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Written by: Alison Pitre (Mother of 2 boys), Director of Marketing