MOTHER’S DAY

From the American Civil War to the end of war

In 1868, Ann Jarvis created a committee to establish a "Mother's Friendship Day". The purpose was "to reunite families that had been divided during the Civil War". She wanted to expand her committee into an annual memorial for mothers, but she died in 1905 before the celebration became popular. It was left to her daughter, Anna Jarvis, to continue her mother's efforts to establish the annual holiday that we all know as “Mother’s Day”. Mother’s Day is celebrated in the USA on the second Sunday in May to recognize mothers and motherhood and the positive contributions they make to society. In the 1870’s and the 1880’s Mother’s Day was celebrated by woman’s peace groups who met at local levels to bring together groups of mothers whose sons fought or died on opposite sides of the American Civil War. Famous women like Julia Ward Howe of New York City and Juliet Calhoun Blakely of Albion Michigan carried on the promotion of Mother’s Day. It was Blakely who somehow got the Mother’s Day movement involved with the temperance movement, another huge woman’s issue of the time.
On the first celebration of Mother’s Day, in 1908, Anna Jarvis delivered 500 carnations to the Andrew's Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia, thereby creating the symbol of Mother’s Day, the carnation. This practice of wearing a carnation on Mother’s Day soon lead to a broader commercial promotion of the holiday resulting in the giving of all types of flowers, floral bouquets and gifts. Today it is common for an active mother to receive a white carnation along with the new Skwoosh gel fishing seat or the classic kayak gel paddling seat. For Mom’s who travel, the Skwoosh Travel gel cushion might show up or she might find the Skwoosh EZ Swivel auto gel cushion for extra comfort when she drives around town. We’ve heard that there are many mothers who cruise or tour behind dad on their Harley, Gold Wing or BMW motorcycles. These bike moms get front seat comfort when their Mother’s Day gift is a new Skwoosh Pillion gel pad or Motorcycle ICS Gel cushion for their special motorcycle passenger seat.
Enough of this self promotion and back to more of the history of Mother’s Day. West Virginia was the first state to officially declare Mother’s Day a holiday in 1910. The rest of the states quickly followed and on May 8, 1914 the U.S. Congress passed a law designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. On May 9, 1914 President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation declaring the first national Mother’s Day as a day for Americans to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war. In 1934, President Franklin Roosevelt approved a stamp commemorating the holiday and in May 2008, the House of Representatives voted twice on a resolution commemorating Mother’s Day so that all Congressmen would be on record showing support for the holiday.
At Skwoosh we support Mother’s Day and want to let everyone know that we thank mothers around the world for their unending sacrifices, hard work, love and understanding. We also know that it will be the mothers of the world who will unite to end wars and put an end to the loss of their children and husbands and bring a lasting peace for us all.