http://fanbox by Brian Richards

She's honoured in many countries around the globe. She's a nurturer and peace maker by definition. She's the female who gave life to you...That's right, your dear 'ole Mum.

Every mother, the world over, deserves to be pampered every so often. What better opportunity to do so than Mothers Day? Mother's Day 2012 falls on Sunday March 18th this year. It's time to show Mum just how much she means to you. But what are all the chocolates, flowers, cards and so forth, all about?

Well, it's all down to two women, one named Julia Ward Howe - an abolitionist best remembered as the poet who wrote 'Battle Hymn of the Republic' - the other named Anna Jarvis, daughter of activist and social worker, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis.

But believe it or not, UK Mothers Day is a relatively new phenomenon - it's only just over a hundred years old!

In 1870, Julia Ward Howe worked to launch a Mother's Peace Day. She became so troubled by the bloody battles of the Civil War that she called on mothers to come together in unison to make an objection about the ridiculousness of their sons killing each other.

What's more, in 1870, she even created an appeal to women urging them to protest against the war in her world-famous 'Mother's