FIRST MOTHER’S DAY

A picnic for mothers – at the end of the Civil War – when the hatred of men, who had once been friends, still existed – was the first organized Mother’s day in history. The mother who planned the picnic; who on that day saw these men become friends again and just be mothers’ sons once more, died, but her daughter, who was not even born, carried on the good work.

She was Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia.  Her mother had organized women’s groups to promote friendship and health. Jarvis, inspired by the good work that her mother had laid down, spread the idea of Mother’s day, both as a memorial to her mother and a flowering of her work. On May 12, 1907, she held a memorial service at her late mother’s church in Grafton, West Virginia. And so, on the second Sunday in May, 1908, the second organized Mother’s day was organized. Within five years virtually every state was observing the day. In 1914, she saw the passage of the bill making Mother’s Day a national flag holiday. President Woodrow Wilson presented her with the pen with which he signed the bill.

Although Jarvis had promoted the wearing of a white carnation as a tribute to one’s mother, 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. However, what had originally been primarily a day of honour became associated with the sending of cards and the giving of gifts and, in protest against its commercialization, Jarvis spent the last years of her life trying to abolish the holiday she had brought into being.

Mother’s day has been celebrated in Canada since 1915. FYI.