Postcard from the Past: Mother’s Day Observance

An editorial in the May 16, 1912 edition of The Saratoga Sun reads:

The celebration of Mother’s Day is destined to become one of our most popular memorial days.

The father is well enough, in his way, and we would not care to dispense with him. But, mothers are not to be thought of in any manner but the most sincere devotion. 

For the motherhood of the world, but for the love and tenderness and unselfish devotion that is daily and hourly poured out upon the universe by the mothers of the land, life would not be worth the living. 

And, she is to come into her own on this memorial day, which men and women and girls and boys will be swift to observe, and every one will be the better for such observance. It will become one of most cherished possessions as the days go on and will mark an era in the lives of the people wherever observed.

A front page article in the same newspaper further touted Mother’s Day as thus:

The subhead read, a splendid program which was listened to by a well-filled house – white carnations for each mother.

The article, in part, continued, the women of the W.C.T.U. gave a most excellent program in the Presbyterian Church on Sunday evening, the event being the celebration of Mother’s Day.

Mrs. Fanny H. Lee read a paper on the origin of Mother’s Day, which was inaugurated through the devotion of a daughter – a Miss Jarvis – to the memory of her mother. To this tender devotion and daughterly love, we are indebted for one of the sweetest and best of all our memorial days.

A beautiful solo, “Rock Me to Sleep, Mother” was sung.

Mrs. Pearson’s paper “Mother and Children” was listened to with marked attention. It was full of good thoughts and showed the writer had pondered deeply on the close and mysterious bond which unites the mother and child.

The women had procured a box of white carnations, the flower dedicated to mothers and Mother’s Day, and every mother in the congregation was presented with one. 

They filled the room with their delicious fragrance and were indeed an incense offering to motherhood. They made everyone feel they were a most charming emblem of motherly love and tenderness.