Mother’s Day
is born
By Harold D. Gingerich
For the record, Mother’s Day was not
the invention of Hallmark Cards.
Tributes to motherhood date back
to ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans whose celebrations honored their
feminine deities. Sixteenth century
Christians in England chose the fourth
Sunday of Lent to honor the Virgin
Mary, mother of Christ. North America
points to the Civil War and women
like Anna Jarvis and Julia Ward
Howe for origins of what we know as
Mother’s Day.
Julia Ward Howe, who penned The
Battle Hymn of the Republic, championed the efforts for a national Mother’s
Day Proclamation in 1870. Disillusioned by the carnage of the Civil
War, her passionate poem, Mothers
Day Proclamation, called on mothers
to protest the f utility of their sons
killing the sons of other mothers. She
proposed converting July 4 to Mother’s
Day, but when that failed, June 2
was chosen.
By 1873, groups in 18 cities observed Howe’s new holiday. Initially
Howe financed most of the expenses,
but once her money stopped so did
the observances. However, a seed had
been planted. Bostonians continued to
celebrate for more than 10 years.
It would be Anna Jarvis, never a
mother herself, who took up the cause
and came to be known as the “Moth-
er
of
Mother’s
Day”. Her
mother, Anna
Marie Reeves
Jarvis, was
Anna’s inspiration. Throughout the Civil War “Mother Jarvis” organized women’s brigades,
asking workers to do all they could
without regard to North or South. In
1878, Anna (age 12) heard her mother
say, while teaching a Sunday School
lesson on mothers of the Bible, “I hope
and pray that someone, sometime,
will found a memorial mother’s day…
There are many days for men, but none
for mothers.” Mother Jarvis died on
May 9, 1905. At the graveside service,
Anna’s brother Claude overheard Anna
say, “By the grace of God, you shall
have that Mothers Day”.
Jarvis, embarking on a tireless
campaign, sent a stream of letters to
prominent national leaders including
Presidents William Taft and Theodore Roosevelt. In 1907, Anna led a
tribute on the second Sunday of May
at Andrews Methodist Church in
Grafton, West Virginia, where Mother
Jarvis had taught. Anna handed out
her mother’s favorite flower, the white
carnation, to symbolize the purity of a
mother’s love.
The custom spread to churches in
45 states, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Mexico
and Canada.
Mother’s Day was proclaimed by the
Governor of West Virginia in 1912,
and the following year by the Governor
of Pennsylvania. In 1913, President
Woodrow Wilson signed a Congressional Resolution proclaiming the second
Sunday of May as Mother’s Day.
Because of commercialization, specifically the sale of flowers, Jarvis sued
to stop a Mother’s Day event in 1923.
The Florist Review admitted in print
that, “This was a holiday that could be
exploited.” In the 1930s Anna was arrested for protesting the sale of flowers
at the American War Mothers group.
She petitioned against a postage stamp
featuring her mother with a vase of
white carnations and the words “Mothers Day”. She was able to get the wording removed, but the flowers stayed. In
1938, Jarvis attempted unsuccessfully
to copyright “Mother’s Day”. Flower
sales grew - white for mothers who had
died, red for those still living.
One last twist of irony - Anna
Jarvis died in 1948 - blind, poor and
childless. Anna never knew it was The
Florist Exchange that had anonymously been paying for her care.
Happy Mother’s Day!
The Hometown Treasure · May ‘13 · pg 47