By now, we must all have seen social media flooded with Mother's Day photos and wishes and rushed to wish our own in order to not be left out on doing the good deed at the right time when the day calls for it. Mother's Day is celebrated across the world to express love and gratitude towards mothers but do we know how it actually began?
Years ago, a woman named Anna Jarvis in the United States wanted to memorialise the day after her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, had expressed this desire. During the years of the American civil war, Jarvis's mother mostly spent her time working for causes for mothers and mothers-to-be. This included guiding mothers to prevent child mortality, forming communities to help mothers from both sides of the war etc. Following the Civil War, Jarvis' mother organised 'Mothers’ Friendship Days' to promote reconciliation.
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Thus Mother’s Day became a holiday to unite mothers around charitable works and pacifism.
In 1907, Jarvis, began lobbying to make Mother’s Day a national holiday, flooding Washington with letters. The Day became an official holiday after former US President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation in 1914 declaring the second Sunday of May as Mother's Day.
In Jarvis’ vision, it was a day to quietly acknowledge the sacrifices mothers made for their children. But merchants soon co-opted Mother’s Day, using the occasion to commercialise their own ventures and sell more chocolates, flowers, gifts and greeting cards.
Jarvis spent the rest of her life fighting this commercialisation of Mother’s Day. Eventually, she began hating the holiday so much that she actually tried to have it removed from the American calendar.