Her version of the day involved wearing a white carnation as a badge and visiting one’s mother or attending church services. READ MORE: Why the Founder of Mother's Day Turned Against It Jarvis Decries Commercialized Mother’s DayĪnna Jarvis had originally conceived of Mother’s Day as a day of personal celebration between mothers and families. Her persistence paid off in 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson signed a measure officially establishing the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. Arguing that American holidays were biased toward male achievements, she started a massive letter writing campaign to newspapers and prominent politicians urging the adoption of a special day honoring motherhood.īy 1912 many states, towns and churches had adopted Mother’s Day as an annual holiday, and Jarvis had established the Mother’s Day International Association to help promote her cause. That same day also saw thousands of people attend a Mother’s Day event at one of Wanamaker’s retail stores in Philadelphia.įollowing the success of her first Mother’s Day, Jarvis-who remained unmarried and childless her whole life-resolved to see her holiday added to the national calendar. In 1873 Howe campaigned for a “Mother’s Peace Day” to be celebrated every June 2.Īfter gaining financial backing from a Philadelphia department store owner named John Wanamaker, in May 1908 she organized the first official Mother’s Day celebration at a Methodist church in Grafton, West Virginia. In 1870 Howe wrote the “Mother’s Day Proclamation,” a call to action that asked mothers to unite in promoting world peace. In 1868 Jarvis organized “Mothers’ Friendship Day,” at which mothers gathered with former Union and Confederate soldiers to promote reconciliation.Īnother precursor to Mother’s Day came from the abolitionist and suffragette Julia Ward Howe. These clubs later became a unifying force in a region of the country still divided over the Civil War.
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In the years before the Civil War, Ann Reeves Jarvis of West Virginia helped start “Mothers’ Day Work Clubs" to teach local women how to properly care for their children. The origins of Mother’s Day as celebrated in the United States date back to the 19th century. These holiday chats with Mom often cause phone traffic to spike by as much as 37 percent. WATCH: Women's History Documentaries on HISTORY Vault History of Mother’s DayĬelebrations of mothers and motherhood can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who held festivals in honor of the mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele, but the clearest modern precedent for Mother’s Day is the early Christian festival known as “Mothering Sunday.”ĭid you know? More phone calls are made on Mother’s Day than any other day of the year. While dates and celebrations vary, Mother’s Day traditionally involves presenting moms with flowers, cards and other gifts. Jarvis would later denounce the holiday’s commercialization and spent the latter part of her life trying to remove it from the calendar.
In the United States, Mother’s Day 2022 will occur on Sunday, May 8. The American incarnation of Mother’s Day was created by Anna Jarvis in 1908 and became an official U.S. Mother’s Day is a holiday honoring motherhood that is observed in different forms throughout the world. Jarvis Decries Commercialized Mother’s Day.Anna Jarvis Turns Mother's Day Into a National Holiday.