Our modern Mother's Day began as an anti-war response.

In 1870, Julia Ward Howe, a Boston poet, pacifist, suffragist, and author of the lyrics to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," organized a day encouraging mothers to rally for peace. She believed they bore the loss of human life more harshly than anyone else.

Her Mother's Day Proclamation was in response to the deaths from the Civil War, but unfortunately the movement fizzled.

The next to try was Anna Jarvis. In 1905, she wanted to create a memorial to her mother and began a campaign to institute an official holiday to honor all mothers.

It was declared a national holiday by President Woodrow Wilson. Jarvis had hoped for a day of reflection and quiet prayer by families, thanking God for all that mothers had done.

But nine years later, infuriated by the industry publication Florists' Review statement that Mother's Day was "a holiday that could be exploited," Jarvis filed a lawsuit in an effort to stop the over-commercialization of Mother's Day.