How did Mother’s Day start?
Mother’s Day is one of the most celebrated occasions around the world and this is how people started celebrating a special day for their moms.
In 2024, this celebration for mothers will fall on May 12. The occasion commonly takes place on a Sunday. For many years, the celebration of this even evolved. Based on the article in Britannica, celebrations honoring mother goddesses have already existed for thousands of years.
However, the modern version of this celebration for moms came at the beginning of the 20th century. It was started by American activist Anna Jarvis.
She created the holiday in honor of her own mother. Jarvis’s mother had organized women’s groups to promote health and friendship in the West Virginia community.
The woman who gave birth to her had been dreaming of having a memorial day honoring and appreciating what mothers do and all their hard work. Jarvis promised to fulfill this dream after her mother died in 1905 to honor her memory.
The American activist held what is considered by many people to be the first Mother’s Day celebration. That was on May 10, 1908. She conducted a memorial service in Philadelphia to honor all mothers. Then, she sent 500 white carnations to her late mother’s church in West Virginia. From that, the said flower became the symbol of the holiday.
This celebration gained popularity in a short time. Eventually, on May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson officially designated the second Sunday of May as Mother’s Day.
The holiday’s popularity was boosted by the fact that it had a good business appeal. It is being celebrated with flowers, cards, and gifts. With this, businesses under these items had products to cater to the consumers’ needs in celebrating the occasion. Billions of dollars are spent yearly for this event, in the US alone, and the numbers would be much more surprising if other countries were included.
Jarvis saw the unfortunate situation that the holiday she started to honor mothers became a commercialized celebration. The American activist spent the last years of her life trying to abolish the holiday
Aside from Mother’s Day, people around the world are also fond of celebrating Christmas in which the red and green colors become more dominant, and there is a reason behind that.