FYI – Before starting my blog, I would like to inform all that read it, that during the summer months I will be blogging only once a month. Many folks – both the readers and the writer – are busy enjoying the outdoors during our short summers. I will blog on the first weekend of the month.
An old Jewish proverb states that God made mothers because he couldn’t be everywhere. I don’t agree with all of this as I believe that God is omnipresent, but I also believe that mothers are very special beings which is what I think the proverb is alluding to.
Anna Marie Jarvis also thought mothers were special – special enough that there should be a day to remember them and all the good they do. She is the one credited as being the founder of the Mother’s Day holiday in the United States. Her idea came through her mother who she admired deeply for many things – one of which was tending to the wounded during the Civil War. When Anna was twelve years old she remembers hearing her mother praying and expressing that she hoped someday there would be a day given to celebrate mothers.
Anna’s mother died in 1905, but Anna never forgot her mother’s prayer. In 1907 she began to host campaigns for dedicating a day in remembrance of mothers. In 1910 Anna’s home state of West Virginia became the first state to observe Mother’s Day. It was meant to be a day spent in church. Following the service children were assisted in writing endearing letters to their mothers. Anna also began the tradition of wearing carnations on that day – her mother’s favorite flower. Red ones were worn to show honor to the living moms, white ones were worn to honor those deceased.
By 1914, President Wilson declared Mother’s Day a national holiday. It was to be celebrated yearly, on the second Sunday of May.
Within a few short years, flower venders and card companies were capitalizing on the holiday. The commercialization of the holiday so outraged Anna that she is quoted as saying, “A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy! You take a box to Mother and then eat most of it yourself. A pretty sentiment.”
By 1924 Anna began aggressively trying to abolish the holiday she had fondly founded. Six years later she was arrested for disturbing the peace at a Mother’s Day Carnation sale. She spent the rest of her life and her family inheritance fighting the holiday.
Anna never married, and in 1948 she died, leaving no children to remember her.
Today, Mother’s Day is celebrated in 46 countries, although not all on the same day. I can understand Anna’s thought process about the commercialization, but you will not find me turning down a card, a flower, or a gift on Mother’s Day. I know so many special mothers and each of them deserves a special moment on this Sunday.
Here’s to all the mothers who every day do what John Wesley proposed: Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.
Until next month – if you keep on readin’, I’ll keep on writin’.