Every May, women around the world are celebrated for their sacrifices and contributions to the family.

With all mothers do for their children, it would seem like the concept of honoring them would be ages old.

However, it really wasn’t until relatively recently that a celebration of mothers was instituted.

In ancient Greece, individuals honored Rhea, mother of the gods. Christians also celebrated Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ.

But it wasn’t until the 1900s before the general mothering population was celebrated in earnest.

Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis was a young homemaker in West Virginia who, beginning in 1858, attempted to improve sanitation and nursing procedures through women’s clubs and what she called “Mothers Friendship Day.”

It wasn’t Ann Maria, but rather her daughter, Anna Jarvis, who created the Mother’s Day we celebrate today.

Anna Jarvis spent many years caring for her aging and ailing mother, who died May 9, 1905.

Anna Jarvis missed her mother terribly and noticed many children failed to respect and honor their mothers while they were alive, and it wasn’t until after they died that these children recognized what they had lost in their parent.

She intended to start a Mother’s Day to honor mothers.

In 1907, Anna Jarvis attempted to establish Mother’s Day to “honor mothers, living and dead.” She started the campaign to establish a national Mother’s Day.

Together with her friends, Anna Jarvis started a letter-writing campaign to urge ministers, businessmen and congressmen to declare a national Mother’s Day holiday.

Her efforts paid off.

The first Mother’s Day was celebrated May 10, 1908, and honored the late Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis.

After this initial celebration, Mother’s Day caught on. The Mother’s Day International Association was established on Dec. 12, 1912, to promote and encourage meaningful observances of the event.

And on May 9, 1914, a presidential proclamation declared that every year the second Sunday in May would be observed as Mother’s Day.