Welcome to Mother’s Day. Here’s the story.
Mother’s Day in America was started in 1907 by a woman named Anna Jarvis. It actually started as a tribute to Jarvis’s mother who had organized women’s groups to promote friendship and health. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson made it a national holiday. Mom’s Day is always celebrated on the second Sunday of May.
By the 1920’s, Mother’s Day was humming right along and eventually capitalism found its way to the second Sunday in May just as it does with most holidays. Flowers, candy, and of course cards. Founder Jarvis started Mother’s Day as a liturgical service, and eventually she because kind of pissed because of the commercialization. Mother’s Day came to be known as the “Hallmark Holiday”. Jarvis believed that the emphasis of Mother’s Day should be sentiment, not profit.
Eventually Jarvis started to organize boycotts of Mother’s Day and threatened to sue companies involved like Hallmark. She protested at a candy makers’ convention in Philadelphia and again at a meeting of American War Mothers in 1925 where she was arrested for disturbing the peace in 1925. Jarvis believed that people should honor their mothers through handwritten letters expressing love and gratitude, not buying gifts, candy, and pre-made cards.
Despite her efforts to defeat the capitalist inculcation of Mother’s Day, it’s become one of the biggest days for sales of flowers and greeting cards. It’s also the biggest holiday for long-distance telephone calls, and it’s third in line for church goers behind Christmas Eve and Easter. According to the latest annual consumer survey by the National Retail Federation, Mother’s Day spending is projected to hit $33.5 billion this year.
But maybe this cottage industry capitalist tribute to mom isn’t such a bad thing after all. Have you ever heard of “Children’s Day” or “Temperance Sunday”? Me neither. They both started right around the same time Mother’s Day did, but Hasbro and valium hadn’t been invented yet.
Good luck and have a good week.
Joe Still
2024.05.12
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“God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers.”
– Rudyard Kipling