Today when we think of Mother’s Day we think “brunch & flowers”. But this now commercialized holiday has a dark past…

The tradition was started after the Civil War and was a call to action to the many mothers who lost their sons in battle, to protest the horrors and carnage of war. For a little bit of “herstory”, read the original Mother’s Day Proclamation written by Julia Ward Howe in 1870:

“Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!

Say firmly: “We will not have great questions decided by
irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking
with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be
taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach
them of charity, mercy and patience.

We women of one country will be too tender of those of another
country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From
the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says “Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance
of justice.”

Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons
of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a
great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women,
to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the
means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each
bearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a
general congress of women without limit of nationality may be
appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at
the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the
alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement
of international questions, the great and general interests of
peace.”

Wow. Not so “brunch & flowers”, is it?

Thankfully, this “general congress of women without limit of nationality” does exist today, in the form of The International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers.

So much of our heartfelt human history has been lost in the fog of commercialism and consumerism. Let’s celebrate our ancestors by reclaiming the roots of our traditions. We can still honor our past. We can still feel connected to the source. We can still be empowered and enlightened by these stories and this wisdom… together, over brunch & flowers.