Beyond flowers and cards, Mother’s Day contains a story of struggle, love, loss and peace. Know the little counted origin of this date that today excites millions throughout the country.
This Sunday, as every second Sunday of May, in New York and as millions throughout the country they stop to pay tribute to an irreplaceable figure: Mom. Mother’s Day is today one of the most popular festivities, marked by family lunches, flap carnations, greeting cards and social media tributes. But what few know is that behind this collective gesture of love there is a deep and moving history, which is born of pain, devotion and desire for unity.
The origin of Mother’s Day in the United States dates back to the 19th century, a time of wounds open by the Civil War. Ann Jarvis, a Western Virginia activist, dreamed of gathering families divided by war. In 1868, he founded the “Friendship Day of Mothers” in the hope of promoting reconciliation. She had also organized work clubs on Mother’s Day to improve health conditions in the Camps of the Union and Confederation during disease outbreaks.
Although Ann died in 1905, his daughter, Anna Jarvis, took the post with an almost obsessive devotion. Three years later, on May 10, 1908, he organized the first official service of Mother’s Day in the Methodist Church of St. Andrew’s, in Grafton, Western Virginia, where her mother had taught. That day, 500 white carnations – Ann’s favorite flower – were distributed among the attendees. Simultaneously, more than 15,000 people gathered in the Wanamaker’s department store in Philadelphia to commemorate the date. The seed was planted.
Anna Jarvis did not stop. With an admirable tenacity, he initiated a national campaign to establish Mother’s Day as an official holiday. In 1914, he succeeded: President Woodrow Wilson signed the proclamation that instituted on the second Sunday of Mother as Mother’s Day in all the United States. The original intention was simple and powerful: dedicating one day a year to honor intimately and personally to the mother of each family. Therefore, Anna insisted that “Mother’s Day” and not “Mothers’ Day” be written, with the singular possessive indicated by a specific mother, not all in general.
However, Mother’s Day brought with it rapid marketing. Already in the 1920s, the sale of cards, flowers and gifts began to overshadow the original sense of the day. Anna Jarvis was horrified. What had been a sacred tribute to their mother and all mothers became, into their eyes, into a business. He dedicated the rest of his life to denounce what he considered a perversion of his idea. He even demanded beneficial organizations already protest in public events. She died alone and impoverished in 1948, without children and without reconciling with the fate that she had taken the feast she created.
Despite the criticism – which still survive – Mother’s Day remains one of the most felt dates by the people. It is estimated that more than 50 % of households send cards. The pink and white carnations are exhausted, depending on whether the mother is alive or has already died. Restaurants, florists and gift shops live one of its days of greatest billing of the year. But beyond marketing, something deeper is still intact: the collective desire to thank and pay tribute to those who gave us life.
Today, while millions of Americans gather with their mothers or remember them with love, it is worth stopping for a moment and looking back. This is not a day born of consumption, but of the love of a daughter for his mother, of the desire to heal war wounds, and the firm conviction that motherhood deserves a place in national memory.
Because at the end of the day, beyond gifts and flowers, Mother’s Day is, and it will always be, an act of love. By: Nahuel Leto
Related Note: Moms scales free this “Mother’s Day” in The Adventure Park on Long Island
