Mother‘s Day, a holiday celebrated worldwide, will land on May 11 this year.
The holiday is meant to honor motherhood, but the establishment of the day was anything but simple. What should it mean? How should it be observed?
Behind the flowers and cards lies a history tangled with activism, grief and the question of how to properly honor the women who have sacrificed so much for their children.
The origins of Mother’s Day
The origins of celebrating motherhood trace back to ancient Greece and Rome, where festivals honored mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele, according to History.
The earliest precedent for modern Mother‘s Day emerged from the Christian tradition of Mothering Sunday in the United Kingdom — a day when worshippers returned to their main church, or “mother church,” said the article.
Over time, Mothering Sunday evolved into a secular occasion which was observed by children giving flowers and expressions of gratitude to their mothers.
The tradition faded over time but was revived in the United States during the 1900s, when Mother‘s Day began to take shape as the holiday we know today.
Mother‘s Day is established in the United States
The American version of Mother‘s Day did not happen overnight. In fact, it was shaped over decades by the efforts of three different women, according to the National Women’s History Alliance.
In 1858, Ann Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker, launched “Mother‘s Work Days” to combat disease by teaching sanitation to mothers in her community.
In 1870, Boston poet and suffragist, Julia Ward Howe, called for a day of peace. She wrote the “Mother‘s Day Proclamation” and urged mothers to unite together and promote world peace, per History. When Jarvis died in 1905, her daughter Anna Jarvis took up the cause, determined to honor her mother‘s lifelong activism.
By 1907, Anna Jarvis organized a Mother‘s Day service at a Methodist church in Grafton, West Virginia, per National Women’s History Alliance. The tradition of the service spread across the country.
In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed Mother’s Day into law as a national holiday.
Anna Jarvis attempted to de-commercialize Mother‘s Day
Anna Jarvis envisioned Mother‘s Day as a day to wear a white carnation while visiting mothers and attending church services. She believed it was about honoring mothers, not selling to them.
When florists and card companies saw a profitable opportunity to capitalize on the holiday, Jarvis was outraged, according to History.
Though she had once partnered with the floral industry to spread awareness of Mother‘s Day, she came to resent its commercialization. She urged the public to stop buying flowers and cards and even launched a new campaign — one against Mother‘s Day and industries profiting from the holiday, including charities.
Jarvis spent the majority of her personal wealth on legal fees and lawsuits against companies using “Mother‘s Day” in advertising. She never married, never had children and died in 1948, having disowned the holiday she and her mother created, per History.
Up until her death, Jarvis had been actively trying to have the holiday removed from the calendar.