DATE=5-10-2002

TYPE=Special English Feature

NUMBER=7-22863

TITLE=SPECIAL ENGLISH AMERICAN MOSAIC #689-Mother's Day

BYLINE=Nancy Steinbach

TELEPHONE=619-2585

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=Shelley Gollust

CONTENT=

HOST:

Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Nguyen Thi Trang Thao asks about Mother's Day.

Sunday is Mother's Day in the United States. Mother's Day is celebrated in many countries around the world, but not always on the same day. Some historians say the holiday comes from ancient spring festivals in Greece and Rome. A more modern Mother's Day began in the seventeenth century in Britain.

The writer Julia Ward Howe made the first known suggestion for a Mother's Day in the United States. That was in eighteen-seventy-two. She said it should be a day to celebrate peace.

Mother's Day as it is celebrated today began with a woman named Anna Jarvis. In nineteen-oh-seven, she held a ceremony to honor her mother at a church in the state of West Virginia. She held the ceremony on the anniversary of her mother's death. Later, she and others wrote thousands of letters to public officials urging that the second Sunday in May be declared Mother's Day.

President Woodrow Wilson and the United States Congress finally agreed in nineteen-fourteen. The second Sunday in May became a day of public expression of love for mothers throughout the country. It became popular for people to send gifts of flowers and candy to their mothers on Mother's Day.

Today, children of all ages still give their mothers special gifts on Mother's Day. Older children may travel to visit their mothers. If they cannot, they usually send a special card with a message of love. Or they send flowers. They also usually call their mothers on the telephone to wish them a happy day. Mother's Day is one of the busiest days of the year for America's telephone companies.

Some families get together on Mother's Day to honor all the women in the family who are mothers. Many go to a restaurant for a special Mother's Day meal.