The following article, "Mother's Day - Its History and Meaning," was published  on May 8, 2008 in Dan O'Rourke's regular column in the Dunkirk Observer.   While its title refers to Mother's Day, it profoundly addresses the unending struggle for peace.  

Funny isn’t it how celebrations stray from their original purpose. Christmas initially intended as the spiritual commemoration of the birth of Jesus has become a stressful, materialistic shopping frenzy. Labor Day originally meant to honor the unionized workforce, has evolved into a gigantic end of summer cookout – even at country clubs! Mother’s Day too has wandered far from its origins.

In the beginning, Mother’s Day was intended to be a Mother’s Day for Peace, but we have long ago forgotten its initial intent. We honor mothers – as indeed we should – with flowers and chocolate and breakfast in bed, but we seldom think about mothers and peace. Recently, "CODEPINK – Women for Peace" reminded us, "Instead of lavish brunch buffets, the mothers of Iraq are faced with malnourished babies and contaminated drinking water; breakfast in bed is not an option when there is no home to return to."

The story of the origin of Mother’s Day’s is intimately connected to three visionary women: Julia Ward Howe, Anna Maria Reeves Jarvis and her daughter Anna Jarvis. Julia Ward Howe is best known for her inspiring Civil War hymn, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." Its rousing words and music have stirred patriotic fervor for over a hundred years. We all remember it.

"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored,

He has loosed the fateful lightening of His terrible swift sword

His truth is marching on."

Julia Ward Howe, however, had seen the dehumanizing effects of that war. She saw the death, the physical and mental suffering of the soldiers, the grief and incomprehension of wives and mothers, the disruption of families and family life. It prompted her to move on from her patriotic hymn. In 1870 with America’s Civil War ended and the Franco-Prussian War between Germany and France raging in Europe, she called on mothers the world over to rise up and oppose all war. She issued a proclamation but failed in her effort to establish an official Mother’s Day for Peace.

Today her 1870 proclamation in the flowery prose of her day does not read easily. Allow me to paraphrase parts of it. "Women, unite to disarm and oppose war! The questions we raise are too important to leave to governments and politicians. We no longer want our husbands to return to us from combat reeking of carnage with their bodies and souls forever wounded. We will no longer allow our sons to be taken from us to be trained as killers and unlearn the charity, mercy and patience we have taught them. Let us meet in an international conference to mourn and commemorate our dead and then to work out ways so our great human family can live in peace."

Anna Maria Reeves Jarvis had influenced Howe’s idea for a Mother’s Day for Peace. Reeves Jarvis was a social activist who during the Civil War proposed Mothers’ Work Days to improve sanitary conditions in hospitals for both the Union and Confederate wounded. After the war she organized meetings of mothers from the North and South to promote peace-making and social justice. Historians consider her and her daughter Anna Marie Jarvis the founders of Mother’s Day in the United States. Like Julia Ward Howe, Reeves Jarvis wanted the holiday to emphasize the work for peace and justice.

After Reeves Jarvis' death, her daughter Anna Marie Jarvis began a campaign as a tribute to her mother to make Mother’s Day an official holiday. The politically popular idea was eventually enacted by forty-five states. Following a joint resolution of the Congress, in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared it a national holiday. Wilson called on the nation to display the flag "on the second Sunday in May as a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country."

Wilson’s proclamation was more about flags than flowers and chocolate. Furthermore, it was more a patriotic display than peace-making. So even from its official proclamation the holiday had strayed from the original vision of Julia Ward Howe and Anna Marie Jarvis’ mother. They had intended it as a day when mothers would unite to decry war and work for peace. By the 1920s, Anna Jarvis herself had soured on the commercialization of the holiday and spoke out repeatedly against it.

Certainly on Mother’s Day we should remember our mothers in loving ways, with candy, cards and flowers, with prayer and phone calls. After all our mothers gave us the gift of life, but neither should we forget the historical traditions of the holiday. Mother’s Day is a reminder for us all to affirm the preciousness of life itself and condemn the horror of war.

What would Julia Ward Howe and Anna Reeves Jarvis say today about this damnable war in Iraq? Is there any question what their reaction would be? They would cry out in anguish, "For the love of God’s stop this pointless bloodshed and return the troops to their families."

Daniel O'Rourke is a married Catholic priest. Retired from the Administration at SUNY Fredonia, he lives in Cassadaga, NY. His column appears in the Observer in Dunkirk, NY on the second and fourth Thursday each month. He has published "The Spirit at Your Back," a book of previous columns. You may purchased it or send comments to orourke@netsync.net