Did You Know?

Julia Ward Howe is credited as being the first person to propose a Mother's Day in America, though it wasn't exactly the Mother's Day we all know and love. In 1872 she called for a day when mothers would join together for huge anti-war demonstrations. Her other claim to fame? She wrote "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

Mother's Day as we know it came about thanks to the efforts of Anna M. Jarvis. The first Mother's Day church service was held, at her request, on Sunday, May 10, 1908, in Grafton, West Virginia. Six years later, in 1914, Congress officially declared the second Sunday in May to be a day to honor mothers.