It’s a day of breakfast in bed, flowers and candy, children doing chores and taking essential “mom time” to relax and take a break from usual routines and work, but Mother’s Day wasn’t always about presenting mom with gifts, in fact, the founder of Mother’s Day fought the remaining years of her life to denounce the newly proclaimed holiday.
The woman accredited as the founder of Mother’s Day is Anna Jarvis, however, before Anna officially attained Mother’s Day as an American holiday, her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis and abolitionist Julia Ward Howe pioneered the way and sparked the idea for Anna.
Anna’s mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis organized “Mother’s Day Work Clubs” in an effort to help teach new mothers how to properly take care of their children.
During that time in the 19th and 20th century, an estimated 15 to 30 percent of infants died before their first birthday in the region that Ann Reeves lived, according to Time Magazine. Ann’s experience in motherhood was no different. Ann Reeves gave birth to 13 children, but only four lived into adulthood. The high mortality rate of infants was due to the unsanitary living conditions and epidemics that spread throughout the area. Ann sought out the help of doctors to come and speak to mothers and teach them the latest hygiene practices so that their children had a better chance at living through into adulthood.
In the years following the Civil War, Julia Ward Howe, also reached out to mothers to use their power and influence to help promote world peace. In 1870 Howe wrote the “Mother’s Day Proclamation,” which asked mothers to unite in a time of division. Howe pushed for a “Mother’s Peace Day” to be celebrated in June.
As both Anne Reeves Jarvis and Julia Ward Howe evoked the sense of importance mothers have in society, it was Anna Jarvis who took her mother’s words and established the holiday we celebrate today.
When Anna’s mother died in 1905, Anna envisioned Mother’s Day as a way of honoring the sacrifices mothers made for their children, according to History.com Editors. However, as the celebrations grew in popularity and more and more people and businesses started to embrace Mother’s Day, the holiday quickly became a massive commercial day of shopping.
Originally Anna did incorporate flowers into Mother’s Day, but it was just one particular flower and for a specific reason. Anna wanted families to wear a white carnation to honor ones mother all day especially at church services.
“The carnation does not drop its petals, but hugs them to its heart as it dies, and so, too, mothers hug their children to their hearts, their mother love never dying," Anna explained in a 1927 interview.
In 1914, Woodrow Wilson signed and officially established the second Sunday in May as Mother’s day saying the holiday would be a day of, “public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.”
However by May of 1923, Anna came to feel that the holiday she worked so hard for was being used as “a means of profiteering,” as the New York Times reported on May 18, 1923. Anna even went as far as to urge people to stop buying Mother’s Day Flowers, cards and candies, according to History.com Editors.
Anna started a new campaign against Mother’s Day and against big businesses profiting off of her holiday. Anna would openly speak out against confectioners, florist and even charities, according to History.com Editors. Many organizations were using the name “Mother’s Day’ in their efforts to profit from the holiday. Anna spent most of her savings and personal wealth on legal fees and lawsuits fighting against these groups using her name “Mother’s Day.” By the time of her death in 1948, Anna had disowned the holiday altogether and actively fought the government to get Mother’s Day removed from the U.S. Calendar.
However you decide to celebrate Mother’s Day, remember to take time to honor and appreciate all the sacrifices and hard work our mothers do for us.
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