Oh, I love Easter Sunday and it comes round every year
Right now I'm so excited cause the Easter Bunny's here!
The Easter eggs are lovely, with swirls on them because,
The Easter Bunny paints them with her little furry paws.

We'll take the eggs and hide them, all up and down the hill,
And I'll go back to find them with my little brother, Bill.
We will pile up all the goodies and I'll eat all I can take,
And then the end Easter Sunday with a big old belly ache.

Now sing briskly

Oh, the Easter Bunny's coming, she's the one I long to see.
She's got eggs in her basket, she's bringing them to me.
I'm looking out the window and I hope she gets here quick.
I need marshmallow bunnis and a little chocolate chick.

I need marshmallow bunnies and a little chocolate chick!
I need marshmallow bunnies and a little chocolate chick!

By Grandpa Tucker

Some of the first myths were told by the ancient people of Phrygia in Asia Minor. They believed that the most important goddess was Cybele, the daughter of Heaven and Earth, and she was considered to be the mother of all the gods. Once a year the people of Phrygia held a festival to honor her. THis may have been the first celebration to honor a mother.

The Greek people also had a powerful goddess who was the mother of all gods, and she was called Rhea.

Likewise, the Romans had a mother of all the gods, and she was called Magna Mater, or Great Mother. A temple on the Palantine Hill in Rome was built for her. Each year on March 15, there was a three-day celebration to honor her, and it was called the Festival of Hilaria. Gifts were brough to the temple to please this powerful mother-goddess.

With the comning of Christianity, a celebration was held to honor the "Mother Church." On the fourth Sunday in Lent, people brought gifts to the church where they had been baptized.

During the Middle Ages another kind of celebration began. Since many children had to leave home to earn money, and they were only allowed one holiday a year, it was the fourth Sunday in Lent that the children went home to see their mothers. This was called "a-mothering," and thus the custom of "Mothering Sunday" was started.

When the first settlers came to America, they didn't have time for many celebrations, so Mothering Sunday was not continued until 1872.

The first suggestion for a Mother's Day in America was made by famous writer, Julia Ward Howe. However, no one took her suggestion seriously. Other people, such as Mary Towles Sasseen, a teacher in Henderson, Kentucky, suggested that her pupils plan a musical program for their mothers.

A woman named Anna Jarvis is considered the real founder of Mother's Day in America. She was born in 1864 and lived in Grafton, West Virginia during her youth. The Civil War had ended when Anna was only one year old, yet there was still much hatred among families in West Virginia. Anna heard her mother say many times that she hoped "sometime, somewhere, someone will found a Mother's Day." She was convinced that if the family honored their mother on a special day, the fighting and hatred would end.

When Anna's mother died, Anna made a promise to herself that she would be the "someone" to make her mother's wish come true. At her request the minister in Grafton, WV, held a Mother's Day service on May 12, 1907, and this service is remembered as the first Mother's Day celebration in the United States.

Anna continued to write letters in support of a national Mother's Day on the second Sunday of May, and by 1909, almost every state was celebrating this special day. On May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation declaring the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day in every state.

Anna continued to write letters and give speeches and she organized the International Mother's Day Association. Before she died in 1948, her idea had spread around the world, and more than forty countries were observing Mother's Day.

We wish to say "Happy Mother's Day" to all our Club Mother members!

For more information visit:

• Bibliography