Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day, holiday in honor of mothers that is celebrated in countries throughout the world. In its modern form the holiday originated in the United States. It was established by Anna Jarvis, who sought to honor her own mother. The first Mother’s Day church service was held in 1908. The day became a national holiday six years later, and it is observed on the second Sunday in May. Mother’s Day is celebrated with cards, flowers, and family dinners, among other activities.

Many other countries also celebrate the holiday on this date, while some mark the observance at other times of the year. During the Middle Ages the custom developed of allowing those who had moved away to visit their home parishes and their mothers on Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent. This became Mothering Sunday in Britain, where it continued into modern times, although it has largely been replaced by Mother’s Day.

History in the U.S.

Jarvis was inspired to create the holiday by her mother, Ann Jarvis, who organized women’s groups to promote friendship and health. In 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War, Ann Jarvis reportedly organized a Mothers’ Friendship Day to promote reconciliation between Union veterans and Confederate veterans and their families. In 1876, when she was 12 years old, Anna Jarvis witnessed her mother offer a prayer at the close of a Sunday school class: “I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mothers day commemorating her for the matchless service she renders to humanity in every field of life,” her mother said. “She is entitled to it.” Anna Jarvis never forgot her mother’s prayer. After Ann Jarvis died in 1905, her daughter began a letter-writing and public-speaking campaign directed at local, state, and national figures and organizations. She and her supporters advocated a Mother’s Day to be observed on the second Sunday of May, which matched the day on which Ann Jarvis died.

On May 12, 1908, a Mother’s Day service was held at Jarvis’s late mother’s church in Grafton, West Virginia. Within five years virtually every state was observing the day, and in 1914 U.S. Pres. Woodrow Wilson made it a national holiday. Although Jarvis had promoted the wearing of a white carnation (her mother’s favorite flower), the custom developed of wearing a red or pink carnation to represent a living mother or a white carnation for a mother who was deceased. Over time the day was expanded to include others, such as grandmothers and aunts, who played mothering roles.

Traditions

Jarvis had conceived of the holiday as a “personal day,” which is why Mother’s is singular rather than plural. Early celebrations included family dinners and religious services, both of which have continued. However, the day also quickly became associated with sending cards and the giving of gifts. In fact, more than 100 million Mother’s Day cards are bought annually in the United States. When it comes to gifts, flowers are especially popular, and carnations remain the official flower of the holiday.

The commercialization of Mother’s Day drew strong condemnation from Jarvis, who wrote in a press release, “WHAT WILL YOU DO to rout charlatans, bandits, pirates, racketeers, kidnappers and other termites that would undermine with their greed one of the finest, noblest, and truest movements and celebrations?” Jarvis spent the last years of her life trying to abolish the holiday she had brought into being.