SUNDAY, MAY 12
In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson officially established Mother’s Day in the United States as the second Sunday in May.
History.com tells us that the movement began with Anna Jarvis, from West Virginia. Her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, had died in 1908. Anna wanted to honor her mother and all other mothers for the sacrifices they had made for their children.
With the backing of Philadelphia store owner John Wanamaker, Anna organized the first Mother’s Day celebration at a Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia. This was in May, 1908. Wanamaker also had a similar event in one of his stores in Philadelphia,
From this point, Anna pushed hard to promote Mother’s Day to the national calendar. She did this by a massive letter writing campaign to newspapers and politicians. She felt that our national holidays were unfairly biased toward male achievements.
Many states, towns and churches had begun to adopt the holiday. Anna then established the Mother’s Day International Association for further promotion.
President Woodrow Wilson was impressed.
In the United States, we celebrate Mother’s Day by presents of gifts and flowers to our mothers. Families also celebrate by giving mothers a day off from chores such as cooking or house cleaning.
There are a couple of ironies:
- Anna Jarvis never married and was never a mother.
- Anna wore a white carnation to church and promoted visits to our mothers. But she denounced the commercialization of Mother’s Day by florists, card companies and others. By the time she died in 1948, she had disowned the holiday and lobbied to have it eliminated from the national calendar.
Occasionally, Mother’s Day has been chosen as a date for launching feminist rallies. Coretta Scott King in 1968 hosted a march on Mother’s Day in support of underprivileged women and children. Women’s groups in the 1970s used Mother’s Day to highlight access to childcare and the need for equal rights.
Anna Jarvis would not have liked this, but Mother’s Day expenditures reached $35.7 billion in the United States last year. Spending for all holidays in the U.S. reached roughly $960 billion.
The United States, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Brazil, Germany, Peru and the Philippines all celebrate Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in May. Serbia uses March 8 and France the last Sunday of May. The following countries celebrate it on May 10 – Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, Malaysia and Singapore. This is only a brief list. Many other countries celebrate Mother’s Day at different times and in different ways.
AMAZON
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Each link will show product details, pictures, prices, reviews and further links to similar items. Look around.
Under $100
- Gold filled dangling earrings
- Bluetooth headphones
- Cast iron Dutch over with lid
- Mini photo printer
- Fitbit health and fitness tracker
Under $50
- Hydrating lip treatment
- Stainless steel water bottle
- Bath bombs gift set
- Saltair body wash
- Chocolate gift basket
Under $20
Under $10
- 2 piece makeup bag
- Aromatherapy shower steamers
- Dr. Scholl’s women’s fuzzy spa socks
- Soft throw blanket
- Body brush
DELIVERY SERVICES
These are businesses specializing in home deliveries, which seem appropriate for our upcoming Mother’s Day.
- Blue Apron
- Bakerly
- Chicago Steak Company
- Chef’s Plate
- Christie Cookie Company
- Factor Meals
- Hello Fresh
- Wine.com
- Baskets
- Adagio teas
FINAL THOUGHTS
Only this, let’s honor our mothers and appreciate the history of our upcoming May 12 celebration.
