Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts

Friday, May 7, 2010

Remembering Mother

The long-standing tradition of Mother's Day goes longer back than perhaps many of us realize - riding a somewhat difficult road before it was established as a national holiday in the US (among other countries) by President Woodrow Wilson, in 1914.

Back in the Civil War, and during Reconstruction, Julia Ward Howe led an anti-war movement focusing on honoring mothers, even composing a "Mother's Day Proclamation" in 1872. However, the contemporary holiday is founded in a movement by West Virginia's Anna Jarvis, who continued her mother's efforts.

The first successful efforts came in 1908, through national promotion. After 4 years of success, Jarvis declared a stable "date" of the "second Sunday in May" for Mother's Day (Note: the punctuation is VERY important - possessive of the singular!). She initially intended the holiday to be commercial. But, ultimately, resented its overcommercialization - even being thrown in jail, 1948, for protesting the very day she founded!

White flowers are worn, or given, to honor mothers. Most notably carnations.
Apparently, according to these articles from the Bourbon News & Mountain Advocate, it doesn't REALLY matter; the flowers can be snowdrops, as long as they are white. (Personally, I remember giving my mother marigolds potted in detergent covers, when I was in elementary school. But what do I know?)

Of course, it didn't take long to call out for a day honoring the family patriarch!

(Sidebar: A movement had already begun in Washington at the time of this publication - Hartford Herald, 22 May 1912. However, Father's Day also saw trials & tribulations - including failed presidential recommendations & suggested "dates," before President Nixon proclaimed it a national holiday in 1972.)

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Controlling the Dog Population - April Fools?

Today, humane societies and shelters help control stray dog populations in American towns and cities. But, in 1904, when the World's Fair came to St. Louis, so did Filipino headhunter tribes who simply LOVED dog meat! When they came down with pneumonia (traced to the missing dietary supplement of dog) and threatened to strike, St. Louis authorities offered them all the stray dogs they could ever want. The Filipino tribesmen could also use the hides in their costume, as they "refused to dress in American conventional style." ("For Breakfast at World's Fair Colony---Igorrotes Want Dog Meat." Hartford Republican 8 April 1904, p. 3)

It MUST be true, right? After all, two Kentucky newspapers - the Breathitt County News and Hartford Republican - and surely many others, printed the story! Of course, this generous offer DID begin on April Fools Day, as cited by both articles.


Can we chalk it up to cultural differences, or was it all an elaborate April Fools prank on the readers? What do you think?

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Signs of the Times - Part 1

It probably goes without saying that most, if not all of us are familiar with the basic layout of a contemporary newspaper. We know what to expect on any given day from any given section or page. The same could be said 100 years ago, even though many publications were significantly shorter (perhaps only the front and back of a single sheet of paper!).

What was included differed somewhat from today's publications a little too. Local papers had local news - but it might be a bit more intimate, especially in rural areas, where everyone knew everybody's business! Ads were not necessarily as vivid, and bylines (the author's name) may or may not exist on every article.

A seemingly popular trend were unattributed columns and snippets throughout publications that delivered news and commentary in a quick shot - one or two sentences. They might include anything from:

health and weather, to current events.
















Or the economy and politics



























These are common threads still followed today, though thrown together in tidbits on pages 3 and 4 of the February 17, 1910 edition of the Clay City Times. In their own ways, they reflect patterns from 100 years ago. Can you tell how and why? What makes these "reports" different from reports you might see in a modern-day newspaper?