There are a number of special days of the year that are celebrated in different countries. The origins of most of the days are unknown. They were certainly not created by individual people. Other days, however, especially those celebrated in western countries, often owe their origins to a particular person. One of the most popular of these, even though it is fairly recent, is Mother’s Day. Mothers have always been highly regarded in all cultures. The ancient Romans had a festival known as Hilaria, during which children took presents to the temple of the “Mother of the Gods”. The Christian Church adopted this idea and called it Mothering Sunday. However, over the years this custom was gradually forgotten and almost disappeared by the end of the 19th century. Born in 1864 in Virginia, USA, Anna Jarvis was a school teacher and believed children should show gratitude to their mothers for all their love and care. Encouraged by a friend, she wrote to thousands of important people—politicians, churchmen, doctors, city officials—and asked them to support her idea: a special day of the year for thanking mothers. In 1910 the Governor of West Virginia introduced Mother’s Day into the state. The date chosen was May 10—the second Sunday in May, which is still observed in America today. This date was chosen because May 10 was the date on which in 1908 Anna Jarvis’s mother had died. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson made May 10 the official date for Mother’s Day throughout the United States. Soon there was a Mother’s Day International Association and the custom began to be adopted in many countries of the world. Anna Jarvis, a sad and disillusioned（失望的） woman, died in 1948. The custom she had worked so hard to establish and which had become almost universal had lost its original purpose. It had been taken over by business. Like Christmas, the giving of presents and the sending of cards had become a multi-million-dollar industry. 小题1:The story is about .
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