The United States celebrate Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May. This year, we are celebrating Mother's Day on Sunday, May 11th. In the United States, Mother's Day was loosely inspired by the British day and was imported by social activist
Julia Ward Howe after the American Civil War. However, it was intended as a call to unite women against war. In 1870, Ms. Howe wrote the Mother's Day Proclamation as a call for peace and disarmament. Howe failed in her attempt to get formal recognition of a Mother's Day for Peace. Her idea was influenced by
Ann Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker who, starting in 1858, had attempted to improve sanitation through what she called Mothers' Work Days. She organized women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors. In parts of the United States it is customary to plant tomatoes outdoors after Mother's Day (and not before).
When Jarvis died in 1907, her daughter, named
Anna Jarvis, started the crusade to found a memorial day for women. The first such Mother's Day was celebrated in Grafton, West Virginia, on May 10, 1908, in the church where the elder Ann Jarvis had taught Sunday School. Grafton is the home to the International Mother's Day Shrine. From there, the custom caught on - spreading eventually to 45 states. The holiday was declared officially by some states beginning in 1912. In 1914, President
Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother's Day, as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war.
According to the National Restaurant Association, Mother's Day is now the most popular day of the year to dine out at a restaurant in the United States. Cassoulet offers you the opportunity to break with tradition. Why not sign Mom and yourself up for one of our culinary classes during the month of May? What better way to spend time with Mom than Chef
Julie Ciezadlo's
(photo) Chocolate Lovers Class on Sunday, May 4th from 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. Cost is $50.00/participant. Please visit our website at
www.cassouletentrees.com for many more exciting culinary classes during the month of May.
Classes are hands-on and after all menu items are prepared, class participants will sit down family style to enjoy the fruits of their labors along with appropriately paired wine. Complete recipe packets will be available to take home. Please register for the class(es) of your choice by emailing us at
centrees@qwest.net or calling us directly at 303-979-COOK (2665). Cassoulet is conveniently located at 10125 West San Juan Way in Littleton, Colorado (just north of C470 on the west side of Kipling.)