Mother's Day is an emotional day for a lot of people some of us don't have the ideal relationship with our moms for some she's not around anymore and for some now we have children of our own and realize how annoying we were as kids then just want to make it up to her send her a Mother's Day card or a bouquet of flowers or just call to say hello but don't tell her about the real history of Mother's Day because this day has a pretty Grim origin story a story that might just make you question should you celebrate Mother's Day at all so stick around don't forget to subscribe like and send your mother a message for if anything keeping you alive before we get into the history of Mother's Day as we know it today let's do a little rewind into ancient
history it's rewind time obviously honoring mothers for the role they play in our lives can't be something new and of course mothers have been revered throughout history the tradition dates back to Pagan celebrations in ancient Greece and Rome in both cultures mother goddesses were worshiped during the springtime with religious festivals the ancient Greeks paid tribute to the powerful goddess Ria the wife of Cronus known as the mother of the Gods Queen of Heaven similarly a three-day Festival in mid-march called Hilaria was celebrated to honor an ancient phrygian mother of the gods or great mother Magna matter dates back to 250 BCE down the line in the 17th century England celebrated a day called mothering Sunday on the fourth Sunday of Lent
the day was set aside for all the mothers in England and servants who lived at their employer's residence a common practice at the time were encouraged to go home and spend the day with their mothers some families would enjoy a mothering cake or car links pancakes made of steeped peas as part of the celebration as Christianity spread throughout Europe the mothering Sunday celebration changed to honor the mother Church the spiritual power that gave Christians life and protected them from harm the celebration eventually emerged so that people honored both their mothers and the church now coming to the 1900s the first Mother's Day we know it as was on May 10 1908.
and it all started when Anna Jarvis of West Virginia sent 500 white carnations to her late mother's Church in her honor and held a celebration of mothers in Philadelphia on the same day by 1914 the holiday had taken off in cities and states around the country and President Woodrow Wilson officially designated the Second Sunday in May as Mother's Day now initially Jarvis created her version of Mother's Day around a Sentimental view of motherhood and Domesticity envisioning a day venerating the daily services and sacrifices of mothers within the home which makes sense and largely Remains the concept of Mother's Day we celebrate today but here's the catch Anna Jarvis's mother and leaves Jarvis had the idea for a day for mothers decades before her daughter and it looked nothing like the version that eventually caught on back in the 1850s
Reeves Jarvis noticed the high infant mortality rate due to unsanitary living conditions the spread of disease and contaminated milk and wanted to do something about it that's when she decided to start a Mother's Day where moms would get together and perform community service that would help other mothers from poor backgrounds to take better care of their children the reason Reeves Jarvis had such Keen interest in maternal and infant health and mortality is because she didn't have a great experience in that area herself out of the 13 children she gave birth to only four lived until adulthood something that tragically was not uncommon and while this was a problem everywhere in America
in the 19th and early 20th centuries it was especially pervasive in Appalachia where an estimated 15 to 30 percent of infants died before their first birthday one of the first events Reeves Jarvis organized in 1858 was an educational seminar for local mothers where they would be able to talk to doctors about the latest hygiene and sanitary practices with the hope they would be able to implement them in their own homes cutting down on the rates of contagious diseases infections and possibly death so to wrap it up Reeves Jarvis was interested in educating mothers to understand the cause of infant mortality and wanting to start a day of service Mother's Day dedicated to helping those mothers who needed it unfortunately this word didn't catch on and leaves Jarvis died in 1905.
following her mother's 1905 death Anna Jarvis who had no children of her own conceived Mother's Day as a way of honoring the sacrifices mothers made for their children after 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 that same day also saw thousands of people attend a Mother's Day event at one of Wanamaker's retail stores in
Philadelphia following the success of her first Mother's Day Jarvis who remained unmarried in Timeless her home life resolved to see her holiday added to the national calendar arguing that American holidays were biased towards male achievements she started a massive letter-writing campaign to newspapers and prominent politicians urging the adoption of a special holiday honoring motherhood by 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 her persistence paid off in 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson signed a measure officially establishing the Second Sunday in May as Mother's Day and so Anna Jarvis created a version of the holiday her mother never got to see during her lifetime albeit one that skewed pretty far from her original vision of service and promoting Public Health
Mother's Day became a day for people to celebrate their mother it's not quite what Reeves Jarvis had in mind but better than nothing right I mean at least it works as a self-fulfilling prophecy for mothers who want to be appreciated to be good mothers Well kinda while Jarvis wasn't on board with her mother's version of the holiday she also didn't like how quickly it became commercialized once it went mainstream and Jarvis's version of the day involved wearing a white Carnation as a batch and visiting one's mother or attending church services but once Mother's Day became a national holiday it wasn't long before florists card
companies and other Merchants capitalized on its popularity while Jarvis had initially worked with the Flores industry to help raise Mother's Day's profile by 1920 she had become disgusted with how the holiday had been commercialized she outwardly denounced the transformation and urged people to stop buying Mother's Day flowers cards and candies Jarvis eventually resorted to an open campaign against Mother's Day profiteers speaking out against confectioners florists and even Charities she also launched countless lawsuits against groups that had used the name Mother's Day eventually spending most of her personal wealth and legal fees Jarvis had disowned the holiday altogether and even actively lobbied the government to see it removed from the American calendar she didn't want what she saw as her Holiday co-opted by women's organizations
charitable foundations or public health reformers she even went so far as to criticize First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt for using the holiday to raise money for charities long story short Jarvis continued to fight for the legacy of our specific version of Mother's Day for the rest of her life it didn't work and she died penniless in a sanitarium in a state of Dementia in 1948. in the end, neither mother nor daughter was successful in implementing their vision for a perfect Mother's Day the real winners, of course, are the greeting card industry and whoever makes those trays with foldable legs used on TV for serving breakfast in bed according to an annual spending survey conducted by the national retail Federation
Americans spent an average of 168 dollars on Mother's Day in 2013 and it has increased since in total Mother's Day spending exceeds 20 billion dollars each year in addition to the more traditional gifts cards flowers candy clothing and jewelry one survey showed that an unprecedented 14 of gift-givers planned to buy their mom's high-tech gadgets like smartphones and tablets so now that you know the origins of Mother's Day and although Reeves Jarvis and Anna Jarvis probably wouldn't have wanted it this way what are you getting your mom this year
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