It’s celebrated every second Sunday of May. It’s a time of buying flowers and cards, and some would argue it’s the worst holiday to forget. It’s Mother’s Day! Everyone knows it’s a time for celebrating all the mothers in their life, whether that be breakfast in bed or a family day by the pool. But most people don’t know its history. Here are the basic facts you need to know for this Mother’s Day on May 11th (don’t forget!).
Dating back to America’s Civil War, many women, horrified by the terrors of the war, joined together to fight for women’s rights and promote women fighting against bloodshed. A common meet-up for these groups was when mothers would group together to talk about their sons and husbands who died in combat. These women then advocated for a national holiday to observe women and their accomplishments. For brief moments, there were informal holidays, but it was Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis’s death that provoked the official day.
Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis, mother of more than a dozen children, was a local advocate in her community in West Virginia for the betterment of women, peace instead of war, and local environment clean-up. After her death in 1905, her daughter, Anna Jarvis, sought out to introduce a holiday to recognize women on the second Sunday in May, the day her mother passed. Jarvis’ holiday differed from the previous Mother’s Day attempts, as instead of focusing on creating peace, it simply focused on honoring one’s own mother and their mother’s surrounding them. White carnations were an emblem of the holiday, leading to the common gift, flowers. Succeeding in her pursuit, Former President Wilson issued a proclamation for an official “Mother’s Day” just before the start of WWI.
While the holiday blossomed into a beloved holiday, Anna Jarvis’s story took a different turn. Upset by the commercialization of the once “holy” day, Jarvis petitioned for the recalling of Mother’s Day. Sadly, Jarvis later died penniless in a sanitarium. Her holiday, however, is thriving. So don’t forget to wish your mother, grandmother, aunt, or any of the women in your life a happy Mother’s Day!
