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Did you know that second only to Christmas, Mother's Day is the biggest jewelry gifting day of the year? Sons and daughters from the Foothills and all over Tucson are right now shopping at jewelry stores, looking for the perfect gift for the woman that's loved them since the day they were born. The closer the calendar gets the more calls I receive for mother's rings, lockets, pendants and all sorts of birthstone designs. My Tucson jewelry store in Sabino Canyon starts hopping from May 1.

The celebration of mothers and motherhood can be traced back to the ancient Greeks who held festivals in honor of the mother goddesses Rhea. In modern times the clearest precedent for Mother’s Day is the early Christian festival known as “Mothering Sunday.”

Once a major tradition in the United Kingdom and parts of Europe, this celebration fell on the fourth Sunday in Lent and was originally seen as a time when the faithful would return to their “mother church”—the main church in the vicinity of their home—for a special service. Over time the Mothering Sunday tradition shifted into a more secular holiday, and children would present their mothers with flowers and other tokens of appreciation. This custom eventually faded in popularity before merging with the American Mother’s Day in the 1930s and 1940s.

The origins of Mother’s Day as celebrated in the United States date back to the 19th century. In the years before the Civil War, Ann Reeves Jarvis of West Virginia helped start “Mothers’ Day Work Clubs” to teach local women how to properly care for their children. These clubs later became a unifying force in a region of the country still divided over the Civil War. In 1868 Jarvis organized “Mothers’ Friendship Day,” at which mothers gathered with former Union and Confederate soldiers to promote reconciliation.

The official Mother’s Day holiday arose in the 1900s as a result of the efforts of Anna Jarvis, daughter of Ann Reeves Jarvis. Following her mother’s 1905 death, Anna Jarvis conceived of Mother’s Day as a way of honoring the sacrifices mothers made for their children. After gaining financial backing from a Philadelphia department store owner named John Wanamaker, in May 1908 she organized the first official Mother’s Day celebration at a Methodist church in Grafton, West Virginia. That same day also saw thousands of people attend a Mother’s Day event at one of Wanamaker’s retail stores in Philadelphia.

Following the success of her first Mother’s Day, Jarvis resolved to see her holiday added to the national calendar. She started a massive letter writing campaign to newspapers and prominent politicians urging the adoption of a special day honoring motherhood. Her persistence paid off in 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson signed a measure officially establishing the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.

Today we call our moms and send cards and gifts. You can view many pieces suitable for mom on my custom designs and collections pages.