Celebrating mothers isn’t a modern idea. Kids News researched the history of honouring* and thanking mothers across Australia and around the world.A mother is the most important being or character in traditional stories of many ancient cultures around the world over thousands of years.ncient Greek and Roman cultures celebrated a powerful mother figure called many different names that generally meant something like Great Mother of the Gods. She was regarded as the giver of life to gods, human beings and animals. She was sometimes called Cybele or Cybebe and there were festivals, usually in spring, to pay respects to her.Many ancient or traditional cultures celebrated a special woman, or believe that Earth is a mother or that a mother was a giver of life to the world.

MOTHERS IN ANCIENT CULTURES
A mother is the most important being or character in traditional stories of many ancient cultures around the world over thousands of years.

A mother is the most important being or character in traditional stories of many ancient cultures around the world over thousands of years.A mother is the most important being or character in traditional stories of many ancient cultures around the world over thousands of years.listened to and looked after.

Ancient Greek and Roman cultures celebrated a powerful mother figure called many different names that generally meant something like Great Mother of the Gods. She was regarded as the giver of life to gods, human beings and animals. She was sometimes called Cybele or Cybebe and there were festivals, usually in spring, to pay respects to her.Many ancient or traditional cultures celebrated a special woman, or believe that Earth is a mother or that a mother was a giver of life to the world.

FIRST MOTHER’S DAYS
Christians across Europe once celebrated a religious festival known as Mothering Sunday. It was on the fourth Sunday of Lent* and was a time for people to return to their home towns to go to special services at the church they went to as children — called their mother church.

Over the centuries Mothering Sunday became more widely celebrated outside the Christian religion. Children would give their mothers flowers and small gifts on Mothering Sunday.

In 1870 one of a group of US anti-war campaigners and women’s rights activists named Julia Ward Howe wrote the “Mother’s Day Proclamation*,” a call to action that asked mothers to unite in promoting world peace after years of wars including the American Civil War (1861-1865).

In the US, the first modern Mother’s Day was in 1908 and was the idea of Anna Jarvis, the daughter of one of the earlier anti-war campaigners. The white carnation — often regarded as the floral* symbol of Mother’s Day — was the favourite flower of Ms Jarvis’s mother, Ann Jarvis, who had nursed soldiers in the Civil War.Anna Jarvis

US President Woodrow Wilson declared the second Sunday in May of 1914 America’s first official Mother’s Day.

MOTHER’S DAY IN AUSTRALIA
Australia first officially celebrated Mother’s Day in 1924.

Sydney woman Janet Heyden began the tradition because she wanted to help the lonely, elderly mothers at a hospital she visited.

Ms Heyden asked schools and businesses to donate gifts to the women at the hospital, many of whom had lost their husbands and sons in World War I or had never been wives or mothers because of the war.

Mother’s Day in Australia is the second Sunday of May. It’s not an official holiday but many families have their own traditions of visiting or calling their mothers, giving gifts or going out for lunch together.