HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

150th GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 10

RESPECTING AND HONORING ALL DELAWARE MOTHERS ON MAY 12, 2019, MOTHER'S DAY.

WHEREAS, Mother’s Day will be observed across the nation on Sunday, May 12, 2019; and

WHEREAS, Mother’s Day was established at the suggestion and urging of 2 distinguished American women; and

WHEREAS, the call for an official Mother’s Day was first issued by noted writer, reformer, and suffragist Julia Ward Howe in 1872, and this worthy cause was again taken up by Anna M. Jarvis, who organized the first American observance of Mother’s Day in Philadelphia in 1907; and

WHEREAS, the first Mother's Day observance was a church service honoring Mrs. Anna Reese Jarvis, held at Anna Jarvis's request in Grafton, West Virginia, and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May 10, 1908; and

WHEREAS, carnations were supplied at that first observance of Mother's Day. White carnations were chosen because they represented the sweetness, purity and endurance of a mother’s love. Red carnations, in time, became the symbol of a living mother while white ones now signify that one's mother has died; and

WHEREAS, the House of Representatives in May, 1913, unanimously adopted a resolution requesting the President, his Cabinet, members of Congress, and all officials of the federal government to wear a white carnation on Mother's Day. Congress passed another Joint Resolution May 8, 1914; and

WHEREAS, Anna Jarvis’s untiring efforts led to the passage of a joint resolution of the United States Congress, designating the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day which was signed by President Woodrow Wilson, resulting in the first national observance of Mother’s Day in May 1914; and

WHEREAS, Mother's Day is officially a national holiday in the United States with the U.S. flag to be displayed on government buildings and at people's homes, "as a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country".

NOW, THEREFORE:

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the 150th General Assembly of the State of Delaware that Sunday, May 12, 2019, is hereby recognized as a very special day for all mothers in the State of Delaware.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the members of the House of Representatives call on all Delawareans to reflect on the many selfless actions of their own mothers and to honor them in the original spirit of the day, as envisioned by Julia Ward Howe and Anna M. Jarvis, by giving each of them the priceless gift of love.

SYNOPSIS

This House Resolution recognizes Sunday, May 12, 2019 as a very special day for all mothers in the State of Delaware and calls on all Delawareans to reflect on the many selfless acts of their own mothers.