It may seem as if Mother's Day was invented by a company named Hallmark, but people have been taking time on the calendar to give a shout-out to Mom for a long time. The Greeks and Romans had mother goddess festivals — although their celebrations didn't involve the menfolk taking their underappreciated mothers out to dinner. A more recent tradition wasMothering Sunday, which developed in the British Isles during the 16th century. On the fourth Sunday in April, young men and women who were living and working apart from their families were advised to return to their mothers' houses.
Mother's Day as it is observed in the United States started in the 1850s with Ann Jarvis, a West Virginia woman who held "Mothers' Work Days" to promote health and hygiene(卫生) at home and in the workplace. During the Civil War, Jarvis organized women to improve sanitary conditions for soldiers on both sides, and after the war she became a peacemaker, furthering the cause by bringing together mothers of Union and Confederate soldiers and promoting a Mother's Day holiday.
Jarvis's work inspired another 19th-century woman, Julia Ward Howe. In 1870 Howe published her "Mother's Day Proclamation", which envisioned the day not as appreciation of mothers by their children but as an opportunity for women to exercise their collective power for peace. Howe started holding annual Mother's Day celebrations in Boston, her hometown, but after about a decade she stopped footing the bill and the tradition faded away.
It was Jarvis's daughter Anna who succeeded in getting Mother's Day recognized as a national holiday. After her mother died, in May 1905, Anna started holding yearly ceremony on the anniversary and conducting a tireless PR campaign to have the day made a holiday. In 1908 she succeeded in enlisting the support of John W anamaker, the Philadelphia department store magnate and advertising pioneer, and by 1912 West Virginia and a few other states had adopted Mother's Day. Two years later, President Woodrow Wilson signed a resolution declaring the second Sunday in May a national holiday.
It wasn't long, though, before whatever ideals the day was supposed to celebrate were buried under an amount of greeting cards and candy. By the 1920s Anna Jarvis was campaigning against the holiday she had been instrumental in creating. "I wanted it to be a day of emotionalism, not profit," she said.
How's your vacation? I'm visiting my uncle in Spain. He lives in the sunny and beautiful city of Valencia, in Spain.
Yesterday, I had great fun. My uncle took me to the tomato festival in Bunol, which is just 30 miles away from where my uncle lives. You have probably never heard of this festival before. Neither have I. The tomato festival is called "La Tomatina" in Spanish. It is the biggest and messiest tomato fight in the world. When we first got to the square where the festival took place, it was very crowded with people from all around the world, and many trucks were carrying tomatoes. My uncle told me the crowded people here were around 38,000 and this was more than four times the population of Bunol.
The tomato fight started as soon as the first banger was beaten. Then everyone including me started throwing tomatoes at each other. I took red tomatoes and threw them at anyone that ran, moved, bent down, or turned around. Tomatoes must be squashed(捏扁) before people threw them in order not to hurt anybody.
After a little while, the streets, people and nearby buildings were splashed(溅起) with red. In spite of no winner in this fight, we all had joy. As soon as a second banger was beaten, people stopped throwing.
I really had a great time. I wish you had been here, too. I hope to hear from you soon. Take care.
From Spain,
Linda
