In 1870, having witnessed the carnage of the Civil War, Julia Ward Howe issued a manifesto for peace at international peace conferences in London and Paris. Two years later, she promoted a Mother’s Day of Peace, and by the next year eighteen cities in the U.S. held peace gatherings. Alas, most of the celebrations ended when Howe could no longer pay for them. Over the years, this holiday, celebrated on the second Sunday of May, lost its original meaning and succumbed to commercialization. But we can reclaim it and proclaim as Howe did, “We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”

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