In May of 1905, Anna M. Jarvis made
a vow that would change the face of calendars forever. Her mother had longed for
a special holiday to honor mothers, and Anna vowed to finish the job her mother
had started. It would be nine years of hard work before President Wilson signed
the official Mother's Day resolution, making official the holiday that started
as a way to honor one special mother.
Anna's mother was Anna Maria Reeves Jarvis, the founder of the
Mother's Day Work Clubs. She organized these clubs to improve sanitary
conditions in her city. The club raised money for medicines, made bottled milk
and food inspections, and provided domestic help for mothers who had
tuberculosis. The clubs spread throughout the area. During the Civil War, the
clubs acted as neutral agents, serving the soldiers of both sides. This was a
time of personal tragedy for Anna, as she watched eight of her 12 children die
before reaching adulthood.
Near the end of the war, Anna organized a Mother's Friendship Day at
the courthouse to bring people of both sides together in peace. Many were afraid
the event would backfire and lead to violence, but the event was peaceful and so
successful that it was repeated for many years.
Anna died, and her daughter Anna led a small service designed to
honor her mother on May 12,
1907,
two years after her mother's death. She then went to work making Mother's Day a
national holiday. She and her supporters wrote thousands of letters to
businessmen, politicians and clergymen, seeking their help in establishing the
holiday. In 1908, the first official Mother's Day celebrations were held in West
Virginia and in Philadelphia in 1908. Philadelphia was the first state to make
Mother's Day an official holiday in 1910, and by the next year, most states had
declared a Mother's Day holiday.
1907,
two years after her mother's death. She then went to work making Mother's Day a
national holiday. She and her supporters wrote thousands of letters to
businessmen, politicians and clergymen, seeking their help in establishing the
holiday. In 1908, the first official Mother's Day celebrations were held in West
Virginia and in Philadelphia in 1908. Philadelphia was the first state to make
Mother's Day an official holiday in 1910, and by the next year, most states had
declared a Mother's Day holiday.
After Woodrow Wilson had declared Mother's Day a national holiday in
1914, Anna may have thought her work was over. Unfortunately, the holiday took
on a commercial tone, and in 1923, Anna filed a lawsuit to stop a Mother's Day
festival. Later, she was arrested for disturbing the peace at a Mother's Day
convention. She was furious to find the white carnations she had designated as
the official Mother's Day flower being sold. "I wanted it to be a day of
sentiment, not profit," she protested. She eventually admitted to being sorry
she had ever started the holiday, and she spent all of her inheritance trying to
return the holiday to its loving intentions.
Anna Jarvis, the woman
who gave us Mother's Day, never married and never became a mother herself,
although she received Mother's Day cards from around the world every year.
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