Every day is a perfect day to celebrate the greatness of every mother. They work extra miles to make sure that their children and households are in good shape.
However, every year, mothers get to be celebrated all over the world on their special day: Mother's Day. If today, we see flowers, dinners, or gifts as a sign of Mother's Day, it is far different from the initial intention of this day.
This celebration had a very long history, beginning in the year 1858 through Anna Jarvis.
It all started with her mother.
The Beginning: 1858
In 1858, the mother of Anna Jarvis, Ann Reeves Jarvis, organized Mother's Day Work Clubs. This day was intended to help in improving sanitary conditions and to descend the infant mortality rates in her community.
Ten Years After: 1868
After the civil war, Ann Reeves Jarvis organized Mother's Friendship Day. This celebration was held in West Virginia. Its aim was to bring together former foes. During that time, Mother's Day was celebrated with war veterans from the North and South who meet for the first time after years of war.
The Sacred Right: 1870
Another mother named Julia Ward Howe said that war is a preventable evil and that it is the "sacred right" of mothers to protects their children. Howe was the forerunner of the modern-day Mother's Day Celebrations and suggested a "Mothers' Peace Day."
Three years after, the "Mother's Day" that Howe initially proposed was celebrated. That was in June 1973.
Anna Jarvis Enters: 1907
On the second Sunday of May 1905, Ann Reeves Jarvis died. Two years after, one of her surviving daughters, Anna Jarvis, organized a service in honor of her mother. It was held at the Andrew Methodist Episcopal Church in West Virginia.
Through the efforts of Anna Jarvis, the first "Mother's Day" commemoration was held in 1908. It was on the second Sunday of May and the same church in Grafton. Also, there was a larger ceremony in Philadelphia.
During the celebration in Grafton, Jarvis gave away white carnations for mothers, sons, and daughters.
It's official: 1910-1915
In the year 1910, the governor of West Virginia declared the second Sunday of May an official holiday: Mother's Day.
According to a history professor in West Virginia, Katharine Antolini, Anna Jarvis wanted Mother's Day to be a special recognition of everything a mother does for the family.
In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Mother's Day as an official national holiday.
Canada followed suit in 1915 when they also declared Mother's Day as an official holiday.
Against Exploitation: 1915-1940
In 1915, Anna Jarvis started railing against what she believed to be an exploitation of Mother's Day. Jarvis believed that this day should be a special day for families and not used by public interest groups to make political statements.
In 1922, Jarvis opened boycotts against florists who increased the prices of carnations every May.
Years after that, Jarvis continued to fight groups whom she thought used Mother's Day for a different agenda.
In 1925, she crashed a convention of American War Mothers in Philadelphia.
Also, in 1935, when a commemorative stamp was released in honor of mothers of America, Jarvis was disdained. In the same year, Jarvis accused Eleanor Roosevelt of using Mother's Day to raise funds for charities.
Jarvis was placed in an asylum: 1948
When Jarvis reached 80 years old, she was placed in the Marshall Square Sanitarium. She spent the rest of her life there, alone and penniless.
Ironic as it may seem, Anna Jarvis, the woman who spent most of her life fighting for what she believed is the real essence of Mother's Day, did not become a mother.
