Top Stories for Tuesday May 6, 2008

Addison County Offers Great Mother's Day Gifts
By Rebecca F. Kay
    Sunday May 11, 2008 is the ninety-forth anniversary of Mother's Day in the United States.  Mother's Day is an occasion to let our mothers know how much we love and appreciate them.  Hallmark reports, “Mother's Day is observed across a wide range of relationships.  In addition to mothers, grandmothers and wives, the celebration extends to daughters, sisters, aunts and mothers of loved ones, friends and other who play a mother-like role.”
    Celebrating Mother's Day is typically done by sending a card, purchasing a gift, and/or sending flowers.  Last year Hallmark reported  “Mother's Day is the third-largest card-sending holiday in the United States, with 155 million cards exchanged annually.”  As for gifts, “Mother's Day is the second most popular for gift-giving, following Christmas.”
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Historically Mother's Day Had A Rocky Start
By Rebecca F. Kay
   Although mothers have been celebrated throughout history, a National Holiday was not recognized until May 8, 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson signed a joint resolution designating the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day.
    In the United States Mother's Day was initially meant as a day to honor mothers and promote peace.  Julia Ward Howe wrote the “Mother's Day Proclamation” in 1870 in response to the Civil War.  Howe was horrified by the Civil War and believed that if there was a convention of women, they could discuss and determine a way to promote peace and stop the killing of mothers' sons.  In her proclamation Howe states: “In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed…to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions.  The great and general interests of peace.”
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