Mother's Day
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Mother's Day 2011 is Sunday, May 8.
The only mothers it is safe to forget on Mother's Day are the good ones. — Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960
If you think Mother's Day is too commercialized, you're not alone. The woman called "the mother of Mother's Day," Anna Jarvis — the person who did the most to make Mother's Day a national holiday — thought so, too. She considered the printed greeting card "a poor excuse for the letter you are too lazy to write" and in fact ended up spending her inheritance campaigning against the holiday she had helped to popularize.
But that was later. Her personal PR campaign for Mother's Day kicked off in May 1907 in Grafton, West Virginia (called the birthplace of Mother's Day), when she held a memorial for her mother in her church. The service took the form of an appreciation of her mother and those of all the attendees. The idea went statewide two years later and nationwide in 1914, when President Woodrow Wilson established Mother's Day as a national holiday.
One could say it was in Anna Jarvis's blood. Her mother, also called Anna Jarvis, was an early proponent of Mother's Day activities. At that time, after the Civil War, the day was less about showing appreciation for the woman at home and more about promoting pacifism and social activism.
If the two Mrs. Jarvises were the adoptive mothers and caregivers of Mother's Day, its birth mother was Julia Ward Howe, an abolitionist, feminist and poet who was the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1870, she issued her Mother's Day Proclamation, which begins:
Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
The proclamation then calls for women to "now leave all that may be left of home" to attend an international "general congress" whose purpose is:
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.
As Ms. Howe later put it: "Why do not the mothers of mankind interfere in these matters, to prevent the waste of that human life of which they alone bear and know the cost?" So, ironically, the original Mother's Day was about urging women to put on hold their caring for hearth and home, husband and children, and work instead on making the world a better, safer place.
If your mother wonders why she, who gave of her life to you in so many ways, didn't get anything gift-wrapped this Mother's Day, feel free to present her with a printout of this essay. OR, consider the list above right.
Keep in mind:
Surveys suggest that what mothers want most is a visit or phone call from each of their children, so do try to deliver your gift in person!
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American Heritage Dictionary:
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Moth·er's Day
(mŭTH'ərz)
n.
The second Sunday in May, observed in the United States as a day honoring mothers.
n.
The second Sunday in May, observed in the United States as a day honoring mothers.
Fowler's Modern English Usage:
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Mother's Day
Chase's Calendar of Events:
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Mother's Day
May 8. Observed first in 1907 at the request of Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia, PA, who asked her church to hold a service in memory of all mothers on the anniversary of her mother’s death. In 1909, two years after her mother’s death, Jarvis and friends began a letter-writing campaign to create a Mother’s Day observance. Congress passed legislation in 1914 designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. Some say the predecessor of Mother’s Day was the ancient spring festival dedicated to mother goddesses: Rhea (Greek) and Cybele (Roman).
See more events for May 8, 2011.
Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore:
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Mother's Day
Created almost single-handedly by Miss Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia who persuaded Congress, in 1913, that the second Sunday in May would be dedicated to honouring mothers and motherhood. This was brought to Britain by American soldiers during the Second World War, and was later taken up by commercial interests, becoming extremely popular from the 1950s onwards. In Britain, however, the day chosen for Mother's Day was Mid-Lent Sunday, which had previously been the traditional day for Mothering Sunday, which it in effect replaced. On the modern Mother's Day, children (and husbands) send cards, chocolates, flowers, etc., to their mothers, and many families make the mother breakfast in bed, or take over the housework for the day.
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Mother's Day
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From our Archives: Today's Highlights, June 21, 2009
Second Sunday in May
The setting aside of a day each year to honor mothers was the suggestion of Anna M. Jarvis of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, whose own mother had died on May 9, 1906. She held a memorial service and asked those attending to wear white carnations—a gesture that soon became a tradition. By 1914 President Woodrow Wilson had proclaimed a national day in honor of mothers, and some people still wear carnations on the second Sunday in May—pink or red for mothers who are living and white for those who have died.
Sometimes Mother's Day is confused with Mothering Sunday, an English holiday that falls on the fourth Sunday in Lent. But Mother's Day is now observed in England as well, and the traditions associated with Mothering Sunday have been largely forgotten. A number of Protestant churches have designated this day as the Festival of the Christian Home .
See also Children's Day
Random House Word Menu:
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categories related to 'Mother's Day'
- Annual National and Religious Holidays - Mother's Day: U.S.: second Sunday in May, honoring mothers
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Mother's Day (U.S.)
This article is about the holiday in the United States of America. For Mother's Day as observed throughout the world, see Mother's Day.
| Mother's Day | |
|---|---|
 Examples of handmade Mother's Day gifts |
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| Observed by | United States of America |
| Type | Cultural, commercial |
| Date | Second Sunday in May |
| 2011 date | May 8 |
| 2012 date | May 13 |
| 2013 date | May 12 |
| Observances | Church services, distribution of carnations, and family dinners[1] |
| Related to | Father's Day, Parents' Day |
Mother's Day in the United States is an annual holiday celebrated on the second Sunday in May. Mother's Day recognizes mothers, motherhood and maternal bonds in general, as well the positive contributions that they make to society. Although many Mother's Day celebrations world-wide have quite different origins and traditions, most have now been influenced by the more recent American tradition established by Anna Jarvis, who celebrated it for the first time in 1908, then campaigned to make it an official holiday. Previous attempts at establishing Mother's Day in the United States sought to promote peace by means of honoring mothers who had lost or were at risk of losing their sons to war.
Traditions on this day include churchgoing, the distribution of carnations, and family dinners.[1] The holiday has been heavily commercialized by advertisers and retailers.
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Contents
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History
First attempts to establish a holiday
The first attempts to establish a "Mother's Day" in the United States came from women's peace groups.[2] A common early activity was the meeting of groups of mothers whose sons had fought or died on opposite sides of the American Civil War.
In 1868, Ann Jarvis – mother of Anna Jarvis – created a committee to establish a "Mother's Friendship Day", the purpose of which was "to reunite families that had been divided during the Civil War", Jarvis – who had previously organized "Mother's Day Work Clubs" to improve sanitation and health for both Union and Confederate encampments undergoing a typhoid outbreak – wanted to expand this into an annual memorial for mothers, but she died in 1905 before the celebration became popular.[3][4] Her daughter would continue her mother's efforts.
There were several limited observances in the 1870s and the 1880s but none achieved resonance beyond the local level.[3] At the time, Protestant schools in the United States already held many celebrations and observations such as Children's Day, Temperance Sunday, Roll Call Day, Decision Day, Missionary Day and others.[5] In New York City, Julia Ward Howe led a "Mother's Day for Peace" anti-war observance on June 2, 1872,[6][2][3][7] which was accompanied by a Mother's Day Proclamation. The observance continued in Boston for about 10 years under Howe's personal sponsorship, then died out.[8]
Several years later a Mother's Day observance on May 13, 1877 was held in Albion, Michigan over a dispute related to the temperance movement.[9] According to local legend, Albion pioneer Juliet Calhoun Blakeley stepped up to complete the sermon of the Rev. Myron Daughterty who was distraught because an anti-temperance group had forced his son and two other temperance advocates to spend the night in a saloon and become publicly drunk. From the pulpit Blakeley called on other mothers to join her. Blakeley's two sons, both traveling salesmen, were so moved that they vowed to return each year to pay tribute to her and embarked on a campaign to urge their business contacts to do likewise. At their urging, in the early 1880s, the Methodist Episcopal Church in Albion set aside the second Sunday in May to recognize the special contributions of mothers.
Frank E. Hering, President of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, made a plea for "a national day to honor our mothers" in 1904.[10][11]
Jarvis never mentioned Howe or Mothering Sunday, and she never mentioned any connection to the Protestant school celebrations; always claiming that the creation of Mother's Day was hers alone.[12]
Holiday establishment
In its present form, Mother's Day was established by Anna Jarvis with the help of Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker following the death of her mother Ann Jarvis on May 9, 1905. A small service was held on May 12, 1907 in the Andrew's Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia where Anna's mother had been teaching Sunday school.[3] But the first "official" service was on May 10, 1908 in the same church, accompanied by a larger ceremony in the Wanamaker Auditorium in the Wanamaker's store on Philadelphia.[3] The next year the day was reported to be widely celebrated in New York.[13]
Jarvis then campaigned to establish Mother's Day first as a U.S. national holiday and then later as an international holiday.[2][3][14] The holiday was declared officially by the state of West Virginia in 1910, and the rest of states followed quickly.[3] On May 8, 1914, the U.S. Congress passed a law designating the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day and requesting a proclamation. On May 9, 1914 President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation declaring the first national Mother's Day[15][16] as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war.[15]
In 1934, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved a stamp commemorating the holiday.[17]
In May 2008 the U.S. House of Representatives voted twice on a resolution commemorating Mother's Day,[18][19] the first one being unanimous (with 21 members not voting).[18]The Grafton's church, where the first celebration was held, is now the International Mother's Day Shrine and is a National Historic Landmark.[20]
Carnations
Carnations have come to represent Mother's Day since Anna Jarvis delivered 500 of them at the first celebration in 1908.[3][16][20] Many religious services held later adopted the custom of giving away carnations.[3] This also started the custom of wearing a carnation on Mother's Day.[10] The founder, Anna Jarvis, chose the carnation because it was the favorite flower of her mother.[21] In part due to the shortage of white carnations, and in part due to the efforts to expand the sales of more types of flowers in Mother's Day, florists invented the idea of wearing a red carnation if your mother was living, or a white one if she was dead; this was tirelessly promoted until it made its way into the popular observations at churches.[10][22]
Commercialization
The commercialization of the American holiday began very early, and only nine years after the first official Mother's Day had become so rampant that Anna Jarvis herself became a major opponent of what the holiday had become,[23][24] spending all her inheritance and the rest of her life fighting what she saw as an abuse of the celebration.[23] She decried the practice of purchasing greeting cards, which she saw as a sign of being too lazy to write a personal letter. She was arrested in 1948 for disturbing the peace while protesting against the commercialization of Mother's Day, and she finally said that she "...wished she would have never started the day because it became so out of control ..."[24] She died later that year.
However, Mother's Day is now one of the most commercially successful American occasions, having become the most popular day of the year to dine out at a restaurant in the United States[25] and generating a significant portion of the U.S. jewelry industry's annual revenue, from custom gifts like mother's rings.[26] Americans spend approximately $2.6 billion on flowers, $1.53 billion on pampering gifts—like spa treatments—and another $68 million on greeting cards.[27]
Commercialization has ensured that the holiday has continued, when other holidays from the same time, such as Children's Day and Temperance Sunday,[28] are no longer celebrated.[29]
See also
References
- Notes
- ^ a b J. Ellsworth Kalas (19 October 2009). Preaching the Calendar: Celebrating Holidays and Holy Days. Westminster John Knox Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=QQpXwIt3ihAC&pg=PA76&ots=mlIDxskAwl&dq=%22third+only+to+Christmas+Eve+and+Easter%22&sig=GcM51tchhsueaID7zb2bsDpuAwo#v=onepage&q=%22third%20only%20to%20Christmas%20Eve%20and%20Easter%22&f=false. "Church attendance on this day is likely to be third only to Christmas Eve and Easter. Some worshipers still celebrate with carnations, colored if the mother is living and white if she is deceased."
- ^ a b c The History of Mother's Day from The Legacy Project, a Legacy Center (Canada) website
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Virgina Bernhard (2002). "Mother's Day". In Joseph M. Hawes, Elizabeth F. Shores. The family in America: an encyclopedia (3, illustrated ed.). ABC-CLIO. p. 714. ISBN 1-57607-232-0, 9781576072325. http://books.google.com/books?id=z55xx8_P08UC&pg=PT714&dq=%22mother%27s+day%22+origin&lr=&as_brr=3#v=onepage&q=&f=false.
- ^ Larossa, 1997, pag 172
- ^ Leigh, p.252
- ^ Leigh, p. 252
- ^ The First Anniversary of 'Mother's Day'", The New York Times, June 3, 1874, p. 8: "'Mother's Day,' which was inaugurated in this city on the 2nd of June, 1872, by Mrs. Julia Ward Howards[sic], was celebrated last night at Plimpton Hall by a mother's peace meeting..."
- ^ Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day for Peace, about.com
- ^ Mother's Day from "Albion's Historical Markers", maintained by an Albion, Michigan business
- ^ a b c "Annie's "Mother's Day" History Page". http://www.annieshomepage.com/mothershistory.html. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
- ^ "Fraternal Order of Eagles: The History of Mother's Day". http://www.foe.com/about-us/mothers-day.aspx. Retrieved 2008-01-26.
- ^ Leigh, p.253
- ^ "They organize no crusade in the interests of so-called 'women's rights'...", NY Times, May 10, 1909
- ^ "The promoters of White Carnation Day have expressed their intention to make the observance international in character...", Poverty Bay Herald, 1 June 1909
- ^ a b Rice, Susan Tracey and Robert Haven Schauffler (1915). Mother's day: its history, origin, celebration, spirit, and significance as related in prose and verse. pp. 3–5. http://books.google.com/books?id=5yLazRf3L5wC&lpg=PA4&vq=woodrow&dq=mother's%20day&lr=&hl=ca&pg=PA3#v=snippet&q=woodrow&f=false. "in 1914 Congress passed a law, which Wilson signed on May 8, 1914, 'designating the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day', and authorizing and requesting that Wilson issue a proclamation 'calling upon the government officials to display the United States flag on all buildings, and the people of the United States to display the flag at their homes or other suitable places on the second Sunday in May as a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.'"
- ^ a b Today in History: May 9 Library of Congress
- ^ William H. Young, Nancy K. Young (2007), The Great Depression in America: A Cultural Encyclopedia (illustrated ed.), Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 520, ISBN 0-313-33520-6, http://books.google.com/books?id=VBljswTLaIEC&pg=RA1-PA520&dq=greece+%22mother%27s+day%22&lr=&as_brr=3&client=opera&hl=es#v=onepage&q=&f=false
- ^ a b House Vote #274 (May 7, 2008) H. Res. 1113: Celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother's Day (Vote On Passage)
- ^ House Vote #275 (May 7, 2008) Table Motion to Reconsider: H RES 1113 Celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother’s Day
- ^ a b Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, National Historic Landmarks program, National Park Service, http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=993&ResourceType=Building
- ^ Leigh, 1997, pag. 260
- ^ Leigh, 1997, pag. 274
- ^ a b Louisa Taylor, Canwest News Service (2008-05-11). "Mother's Day creator likely 'spinning in her grave'". Vancouver Sun. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=c942370c-cdbb-43b2-af59-71ad4b546854. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
- ^ a b "Mother's Day reaches 100th anniversary, The woman who lobbied for this day would berate you for buying a card". MSNBC. Associated Press. 2008-05-11. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24556903/. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
- ^ Press releases:
- "More Than Six Out of 10 Americans Will Have Their Mother's Day Meals at Restaurants, New National Restaurant Association Research Reveals". National Restaurant Association. 2006-05-04. http://www.restaurant.org/pressroom/pressrelease.cfm?ID=1248.
- "Mother's Day Dining Fact Sheet". National Restaurant Association. 2006-04-28. http://www.restaurant.org/pressroom/pressrelease.cfm?ID=1248.
- ^ Barnett Helzberg (2003). John Wiley and Sons. ed. What I Learned Before I Sold to Warren Buffet. p. 80. ISBN 0-471-44539-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=Vq-UzfJhqYAC&pg=PA80&dq=%22mother%27s+ring%22&lr=&client=opera&hl=es.
- ^ Recession or not: Mom comes 1st (phillyBurbs.com) | Local Business
- ^ The New York Times, November 17, 1888, Temperance Sunday's programme
- ^ Leigh, page 256 "... it might even have gradually withered away like other Protestant days of the early twentieth century such as Children's Day or Temperance Sunday."
- Bibliography
- Larossa, Ralph (1997). The Modernization of Fatherhood: A Social and Political History (illustrated ed.). University of Chicago Press. p. 90,170–192. ISBN 0-226-46904-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=rkkIKQVu26cC&pg=PA90-IA3&vq=mother's+day&dq=%22Ann+Jarvis%22+OR+%22Anna+Jarvis%22+%22mother's+day%22.
- Leigh, Eric Schmidt (1997). Consumer Rites: The Buying and Selling of American Holidays (reprint, illustrated ed.). Princeton University Press. pp. 256–275. ISBN 0-691-01721-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=maF8mTPsJqsC.
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American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Chase's Calendar of Events
Chase's Calendar of Events 2011. Copyright © 2010 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore
A Dictionary of English Folklore. Copyright © 2000, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
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Holidays, Festivals & Celebrations of the World
Holidays, Festivals, and Celebration of the World Dictionary. Copyright © 2010 by Omnigraphics, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
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