Who Invented Mother's Day?

Mother's Day Is May 14!

Most of us have a treasury of nice memories of our mothers. Even those of us who do not usually had some type mother figure in our lives who provided us with a safe haven, a comforting shoulder to cry on, and good advice when we needed to make a difficult decision. Perhaps a sister, aunt, grandmother, neighbor, or even a close friend.

It may surprise you to know that the woman who is responsible for Mother’s Day was never a mother, herself, but she was a daughter who loved her own mother dearly.

Anna M. Jarvis was a school teacher who never married; the daughter of a Methodist minister. When her mother became ill, Miss Jarvis was her devoted caretaker for 15 years, until the mother’s death in 1905.

After her loss, Miss Jarvis set out to find a permanent way to honor the memory of her mother, and came up with the idea of a special day to honor ALL mothers, not just her own. Unfortunately, the idea of a national day to honor mothers did not catch on easily.

For several years, Miss Jarvis waged a letter-writing campaign and a barrage of letters from she and her friends began to arrive at the homes of influential people, all the way up to the president, himself.

Anna Jarvis lived another 34 years to see her idea grow, not only across the United States, but also to spread to many other countries. Unfortunately, the day, like many other holidays, became so commercialized that she eventually developed a deep regret that she had brought the day into being.

In her last years, she spent most of her remaining money trying to "undo" what Mother's Day had become, but it was too late. By then, Mother's Day was firmly rooted in the hearts and minds of the world's people.

When Anna Jarvis passed away in 1948, a wreath of 43 carnations, her mother’s favorite flower, adorned her grave, depicting the 43 countries that now celebrated Mother’s Day.

With Mother’s Day, 2006, almost upon us, why not present your Mother a gift of lasting value? How much more it would mean to her to know that you took time to really think about what she might enjoy. And, how much more it would have meant to Anna Jarvis, who envisioned a day to honor all Mothers, not just another day to benefit shopkeepers.

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