The Mother's Day tradition that can be most closely associated with the holiday many countries celebrate today is the British celebration of Mothering Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent.

That's when it is believed that apprentices were released for the weekend by their masters so that they could visit family.

History also suggests the celebration of Mother's Day in the United States is the work of Anna Jarvis, the daughter of a West Virginia Sunday school teacher of the same name who fought for better working conditions for women during the Civil War.

Six years after the younger Jarvis first celebrated Mother's Day in Grafton, W. Va., President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother's Day in 1914.