Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day is a holiday
honoring motherhood that is observed in different forms throughout the world,
and Mother’s Day 2019 occurs on Sunday, May 12, in the United States. The
American incarnation of Mother’s Day was created by Anna Jarvis in 1908 and
became an official U.S. holiday in 1914. Jarvis would later denounce the
holiday’s commercialization and spent the latter part of her life trying to
remove it from the calendar. While dates and celebrations vary, Mother’s Day
traditionally involves presenting moms with flowers, cards and other gifts.
History of Mother’s Day
Celebrations of mothers and
motherhood can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who held
festivals in honor of the mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele, but the clearest
modern precedent for Mother’s Day is the early Christian festival known as
“Mothering Sunday.” Once a major tradition in the United Kingdom and parts of
Europe, this celebration fell on the fourth Sunday in Lent and was originally
seen as a time when the faithful would return to their “mother church”—the main
church in the vicinity of their home—for a special service. Over time the
Mothering Sunday tradition shifted into a more secular holiday, and children
would present their mothers with flowers and other tokens of appreciation. This
custom eventually faded in popularity before merging with the American Mother’s
Day in the 1930s and 1940s.
Ann Reeves Jarvis and Julia Ward Howe
The origins of Mother’s Day as
celebrated in the United States date back to the 19th century. In the years
before the Civil War, Ann Reeves Jarvis of West Virginia helped start “Mothers’
Day Work Clubs” to teach local women how to properly care for their children. These
clubs later became a unifying force in a region of the country still divided
over the Civil War. In 1868 Jarvis organized “Mothers’ Friendship Day,” at
which mothers gathered with former Union and Confederate soldiers to promote
reconciliation. Another precursor to Mother’s Day came from the abolitionist and
suffragette Julia Ward Howe. In 1870 Howe wrote the “Mother’s Day
Proclamation,” a call to action that asked mothers to unite in promoting world
peace. In 1873 Howe campaigned for a “Mother’s Peace Day” to be celebrated
every June 2. Other early Mother’s Day pioneers include Juliet Calhoun Blakely,
a temperance activist who inspired a local Mother’s Day in Albion, Michigan, in
the 1870s. The duo of Mary Towles Sasseen and Frank Hering, meanwhile, both
worked to organize a Mothers’ Day in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Some have even called Hering “the father of Mothers’ Day.”
Anna Jarvis
The official Mother’s Day holiday
arose in the 1900s as a result of the efforts of Anna Jarvis, daughter of Ann
Reeves Jarvis. Following her mother’s 1905 death, Anna Jarvis conceived of
Mother’s Day as a way of honoring the sacrifices mothers made for their
children. After gaining financial backing from a Philadelphia department store
owner named John Wanamaker, in May 1908 she organized the first official Mother’s
Day celebration at a Methodist church in Grafton, West Virginia. That same day
also saw thousands of people attend a Mother’s Day event at one of Wanamaker’s
retail stores in Philadelphia. Following the success of her first Mother’s Day,
Jarvis—who remained unmarried and childless her whole life—resolved to see her
holiday added to the national calendar. Arguing that American holidays were
biased toward male achievements, she started a massive letter writing campaign
to newspapers and prominent politicians urging the adoption of a special day
honoring motherhood. By 1912 many states, towns and churches had adopted
Mother’s Day as an annual holiday, and Jarvis had established the Mother’s Day
International Association to help promote her cause. Her persistence paid off
in 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson signed a measure officially establishing
the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.
Jarvis Decries Commercialized Mother’s Day
Anna Jarvis had originally
conceived of Mother’s Day as a day of personal celebration between mothers and
families. Her version of the day involved wearing a white carnation as a badge
and visiting one’s mother or attending church services. But once Mother’s Day
became a national holiday, it was not long before florists, card companies and
other merchants capitalized on its popularity. While Jarvis had initially
worked with the floral industry to help raise Mother’s Day’s profile, by 1920
she had become disgusted with how the holiday had been commercialized. She
outwardly denounced the transformation and urged people to stop buying Mother’s
Day flowers, cards and candies. Jarvis eventually resorted to an open campaign
against Mother’s Day profiteers, speaking out against confectioners, florists
and even charities. She also launched countless lawsuits against groups that
had used the name “Mother’s Day,” eventually spending most of her personal
wealth in legal fees. By the time of her death in 1948 Jarvis had disowned the
holiday altogether, and even actively lobbied the government to see it removed
from the American calendar.
Mother’s Day Around the World
While versions of Mother’s Day
are celebrated worldwide, traditions vary depending on the country. In
Thailand, for example, Mother’s Day is always celebrated in August on the
birthday of the current queen, Sirikit. Another alternate observance of
Mother’s Day can be found in Ethiopia, where families gather each fall to sing
songs and eat a large feast as part of Antrosht, a multi-day celebration
honoring motherhood. In the United States, Mother’s Day continues to be
celebrated by presenting mothers and other women with gifts and flowers, and it
has become one of the biggest holidays for consumer spending. Families also
celebrate by giving mothers a day off from activities like cooking or other
household chores. At times, Mother’s Day has also been a date for launching
political or feminist causes. In 1968 Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther
King Jr., used Mother’s Day to host a march in support of underprivileged women
and children. In the 1970s women’s groups also used the holiday as a time to
highlight the need for equal rights and access to childcare.
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