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Mother’s Day is a holiday honoring motherhood that is observed in different forms throughout the world. In the United States, Mother’s Day 2021 will occur on Sunday, May 9. The American incarnation of Mother’s Day was created by Anna Jarvis in 1908 and became an official U.S. holiday in 1914. Jarvis would later denounce the holiday’s commercialization and spent the latter part of her life trying to remove it from the calendar. While dates and celebrations vary, Mother’s Day traditionally involves presenting moms with flowers, cards and other gifts.
History of Mother’s Day
Celebrations of mothers and motherhood can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who held festivals in honor of the mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele, but the clearest modern precedent for Mother’s Day is the early Christian festival known as “Mothering Sunday.”
Once a major tradition in the United Kingdom and parts of Europe, this celebration fell on the fourth Sunday in Lent and was originally seen as a time when the faithful would return to their “mother church”—the main church in the vicinity of their home—for a special service.
Over time the Mothering Sunday tradition shifted into a more secular holiday, and children would present their mothers with flowers and other tokens of appreciation. This custom eventually faded in popularity before merging with the American Mother’s Day in the 1930s and 1940s.
Ann Reeves Jarvis and Julia Ward Howe
The origins of Mother’s Day as celebrated in the United States date back to the 19th century. In the years before the Civil War, Ann Reeves Jarvis of West Virginia helped start “Mothers’ Day Work Clubs” to teach local women how to properly care for their children.
These clubs later became a unifying force in a region of the country still divided over the Civil War. In 1868 Jarvis organized “Mothers’ Friendship Day,” at which mothers gathered with former Union and Confederate soldiers to promote reconciliation.
Another precursor to Mother’s Day came from the abolitionist and suffragette Julia Ward Howe. In 1870 Howe wrote the “Mother’s Day Proclamation,” a call to action that asked mothers to unite in promoting world peace. In 1873 Howe campaigned for a “Mother’s Peace Day” to be celebrated every June 2.
Other early Mother’s Day pioneers include Juliet Calhoun Blakely, a temperance activist who inspired a local Mother’s Day in Albion, Michigan, in the 1870s. The duo of Mary Towles Sasseen and Frank Hering, meanwhile, both worked to organize a Mothers’ Day in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some have even called Hering “the father of Mothers’ Day.”
Anna Jarvis Turns Mother's Day Into a National Holiday
The official Mother’s Day holiday arose in the 1900s as a result of the efforts of Anna Jarvis, daughter of Ann Reeves Jarvis. Following her mother’s 1905 death, Anna Jarvis conceived of Mother’s Day as a way of honoring the sacrifices mothers made for their children.
After gaining financial backing from a Philadelphia department store owner named John Wanamaker, in May 1908 she organized the first official Mother’s Day celebration at a Methodist church in Grafton, West Virginia. That same day also saw thousands of people attend a Mother’s Day event at one of Wanamaker’s retail stores in Philadelphia.
Following the success of her first Mother’s Day, Jarvis—who remained unmarried and childless her whole life—resolved to see her holiday added to the national calendar. Arguing that American holidays were biased toward male achievements, she started a massive letter writing campaign to newspapers and prominent politicians urging the adoption of a special day honoring motherhood.
By 1912 many states, towns and churches had adopted Mother’s Day as an annual holiday, and Jarvis had established the Mother’s Day International Association to help promote her cause. Her persistence paid off in 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson signed a measure officially establishing the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.
READ MORE: Why the Founder of Mother's Day Turned Against It
Jarvis Decries Commercialized Mother’s Day
Anna Jarvis had originally conceived of Mother’s Day as a day of personal celebration between mothers and families. Her version of the day involved wearing a white carnation as a badge and visiting one’s mother or attending church services. But once Mother’s Day became a national holiday, it was not long before florists, card companies and other merchants capitalized on its popularity.
While Jarvis had initially worked with the floral industry to help raise Mother’s Day’s profile, by 1920 she had become disgusted with how the holiday had been commercialized. She outwardly denounced the transformation and urged people to stop buying Mother’s Day flowers, cards and candies.
Jarvis eventually resorted to an open campaign against Mother’s Day profiteers, speaking out against confectioners, florists and even charities. She also launched countless lawsuits against groups that had used the name “Mother’s Day,” eventually spending most of her personal wealth in legal fees. By the time of her death in 1948 Jarvis had disowned the holiday altogether, and even actively lobbied the government to see it removed from the American calendar.
Mother’s Day Around the World
While versions of Mother’s Day are celebrated worldwide, traditions vary depending on the country. In Thailand, for example, Mother’s Day is always celebrated in August on the birthday of the current queen, Sirikit.
Another alternate observance of Mother’s Day can be found in Ethiopia, where families gather each fall to sing songs and eat a large feast as part of Antrosht, a multi-day celebration honoring motherhood.
In the United States, Mother’s Day continues to be celebrated by presenting mothers and other women with gifts and flowers, and it has become one of the biggest holidays for consumer spending. Families also celebrate by giving mothers a day off from activities like cooking or other household chores.
At times, Mother’s Day has also been a date for launching political or feminist causes. In 1968 Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King, Jr., used Mother’s Day to host a march in support of underprivileged women and children. In the 1970s women’s groups also used the holiday as a time to highlight the need for equal rights and access to childcare.
READ MORE: Feminism's Long History
The Origin of Mother&rsquos Day: 5 Surprising Facts About the Holiday
These days, Mother's Day is all about greeting cards and flowers &mdash but the history is more complex than you might know.
For many people, Mother&rsquos Day is simply a joyous occasion each May, a time to spend with our children and our mothers &mdash marked by flowers, cards, and maybe some mimosas over brunch. So you might be surprised to learn that its cheerful greeting card messages belie a much darker, more complicated origin story. In fact, Mother&rsquos Day traces its roots back to wartime traumas, and includes plenty of controversy. Here are five surprising facts you may not have known about Mother&rsquos Day and its complex origins.
Anna Reeves Jarvis is most often credited with founding Mother&rsquos Day. After her mother Ann (pictured here) died on May 9, 1905, Jarvis set out to create a day that would honor her and moms as a group. She began the movement in West Virginia, which prides itself on hosting the first official Mother's Day celebration three years later at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, according to CNN. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill recognizing Jarvis' idea as a national holiday to be celebrated each second Sunday in May.
Although Jarvis is widely credited as the holiday&rsquos founder, others had floated the idea earlier &mdash with a different agenda in mind, according to National Geographic. The poet and author Julia Ward Howe (pictured here) had aimed to promote a Mothers&rsquo Peace Day decades before. For her and the antiwar activists who agreed with her position &mdash including Jarvis&rsquo own mother &mdash the idea of Mother&rsquos Day should spread unity across the globe in the wake of so much trauma following the Civil War in America and Franco-Prussian War in Europe.
&ldquoHowe called for women to gather once a year in parlors, churches, or social halls, to listen to sermons, present essays, sing hymns or pray if they wished &mdash all in the name of promoting peace,&rdquo West Virginia Wesleyan College historian Katharine Antolini noted, as cited by National Geographic.
These early attempts to create a cohesive peace-focused Mother&rsquos Day eventually receded when the other concept took hold.
These days, Mother&rsquos Day is a $25 billion holiday in America, with those who celebrate spending about $200 on mom, according to National Retail Federation data published in 2019.
More people buy flowers for Mother&rsquos Day than any other time of year except during the Christmas and Hanukkah season. Gift givers spend more than $5 billion on jewelry alone, and nearly another $5 billion on that special outing. Then there&rsquos $843 million on cards, and $2.6 billion each on flowers and gift certificates, according to the data.
Commercialism is the exact opposite of what Jarvis (pictured here) would have wanted: In her lifetime, she went after florists&rsquo aggressive marketing, eventually facing arrests for public disturbances, according to CNN. She also railed against first Lady Eleanor Roosevelt for interpreting Mother&rsquos Day inclusively as a way to promote the wellbeing of women and children at large. She didn&rsquot even believe in organizations using the occasion as a way to raise funds for charity she didn&rsquot trust the purity of their efforts and saw them as profiteering off the holiday.
&ldquoTo have Mother&rsquos Day the burdensome, wasteful, expensive gift day that Christmas and other special days have become, is not our pleasure,&rdquo she said in 1920, according to Nat Geo. &ldquoIf the American people are not willing to protect Mother&rsquos Day from the hordes of money schemers that would overwhelm it with their schemes, then we shall cease having a Mother&rsquos Day &mdash and we know how.&rdquo
Jarvis herself never profited from her idea. In 1948, at the age of 84, she died penniless &mdash having used all her money to fight the holiday&rsquos commercialization &mdash in a sanitarium.
The white carnation became the official flower of the holiday shortly after Jarvis&rsquo own mother died. On May 10, 1908 &mdash three years after that loss &mdash Jarvis sent 500 white carnations to Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in her mother&rsquos honor for that first Mother&rsquos Day celebration, according to Time.
Jarvis compared that flower&rsquos shape and life cycle to a mother&rsquos love. &ldquoThe carnation does not drop its petals, but hugs them to its heart as it dies, and so too, mothers hug their children to their hearts, their mother love never dying,&rdquo she said in a 1927 interview, cited in Nat Geo.
So if you&rsquore buying flowers for mom this year, consider the white carnation &mdash but also pause to consider the holiday's uncommercial origins. After all, it&rsquos not about flowers, or cards, or gift cards, or jewelry &mdash it&rsquos all about love.
We also want you to let us know what you're planning to do to mark Mother's Day this year: Send us your Mother's Day message by clicking here.
Getty Images During the Middle Ages, the custom developed of allowing people who had moved away from where they grew up to come back to visit their home or 'mother' churches, and their mothers, on the fourth Sunday of the Christian festival of Lent.
At the time, it wasn't uncommon for children to leave home to work when they were as young as 10 years old, so this was an opportunity for families to meet up again.
This became Mothering Sunday in Britain. As the dates of Lent vary each year, so does the date of Mothering Sunday.
Although it's often called Mother's Day in the UK, it has no connection with the American Mother's Day.
In the US, Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May each year.
The idea started in America when a woman called Anna Jarvis held a small memorial service for her own mother on 12 May 1907.
Soon after, most places in America were observing the day and in 1914, the US president made it a national holiday, celebrated on the second Sunday of May.
Lots of other countries celebrate Mother's Day at different times of the year as well.
Getty Images A Brief History of Mother's Day
This coming weekend, our country will honor mothers on Mother’s Day. The holiday can be a day of joy. But it is often punctuated by sorrow. This year, many will long to celebrate the holiday with loved ones they are unable to visit due to the current pandemic. Some will remember mothers they have lost. And other mothers will grieve the shattering loss of a child. The experience of loss on Mother’s Day can feel isolating. Actually, it was out of this experience – of grieving mothers – that Mother’s Day has its roots.
In the late 1850s, Ann Jarvis, widely considered the ‘mother’ of Mother’s Day, established Mother’s Work Day, a day dedicated to teaching mothers how to better prepare food and clean so as to prevent disease. This mission was driven by personal experience, as seven of her eleven children died before adulthood. Though personal, this experience was anything but unique in a time before vaccines and a widespread understanding of germ theory.
Social activist Ann Jarvis
Jarvis’s work took on new meaning during the Civil War. Her home was in close proximity to a major battlefield and the county was flooded with wounded Confederate and Union soldiers. She organized groups of mothers to visit the wounded and ailing of both Union and Confederate loyalty, tending to their injuries and instructing soldiers and camp staff about basic sanitation strategies. Jarvis was not only concerned with the well-being of the young soldiers and sons, but also with that of a post-war, unified, country.
The carnage of the war spurred women, like Jarvis, around the country to find ways to help where they could. After the war, Julia Ward Howe, helped to reshape what Mother’s Day could mean. As a volunteer for the United States Sanitary Commission during the Civil War, she helped alleviate the effects of disease and injury. After the War, Julia wrote her “Appeal to womanhood throughout the world”, later the “Mother’s Day Proclamation”, which attempted to unite women around the world together to bring about a lasting peace:
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy, and patience. We, women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country, to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.
Mother’s Day continued to be celebrated as a movement for peace, but was only celebrated at local levels until the turn of the century. In 1908, Anna Jarvis, daughter of the aforementioned Ann Jarvis, began to campaign to make Mother’s Day a federally recognized day in honor of her mother who had died in 1905. The first nationally celebrated Mother’s Day was in May of 1914. But what had been a day dedicated first to cleanliness and later to peace was again repurposed, this time to celebrate mothers themselves.
As we celebrate the devoted and loving mothers in our lives, we think back to the origins of the holiday and remember the goals of the mothers who began this tradition: to keep their children safe, prevent the spread of disease, to reduce suffering, and to work for peace. Today we share these goals, and wish you all a Mother’s Day full of love, peace and remembrance.
*Since opening to the public, staff at President Lincoln’s Cottage has spent time thinking about the nature and patterns of grief. The Lincoln family initially came to the Cottage after the death of their son, Willie, in part to find the space and quiet to grieve privately. To honor the Cottage as a place of healing, we are planning an upcoming exhibit on grief and child loss so that modern families may also use this space to reflect and connect with the past. Please click here for more information on this upcoming exhibit and ways that you can help support this important work.
20 Mother's Day Facts to Share With Your Mom
Start off Mom's special day with a little holiday trivia.
Your mother would probably prefer you celebrate her every day of the year, but in 2020 you'll be showering her with love and appreciation on May 10th. Show your mom how much you care by impressing her with some fun facts about the history and first celebration of Mother's Day, like these.
The holiday is celebrated every year on the second Sunday of May. This year it will be on May 10th.
Approximately 122 million calls are made on the second Sunday of May.
After Christmas and Hanukkah, more people buy flowers and plants for their moms on Mother's Day than any other holiday. Around approximately one quarter of all the flowers purchased throughout the year are bought for Mother's Day.
The Greek would have spring celebrations in honor of Rhea, the goddess of fertility, motherhood, and generation.
According to the National Restaurant Association, in 2018 about 87 million adults made plans to go to a restaurant for Mother's Day.
These women are between the ages of 15 and 50, and have collectively mothered 95.8 million children!
The first thing a baby can vocalize is the 'ma' sound, which is why in almost every language the word for mother begins with the letter 'M' or is some iteration of the 'ma' sound.
During and following the Civil War, Ann Jarvis made a concerted effort to foster friendship and community between the mothers on both sides of the war. She started a committee in 1868 which established the first glimmer of today's holiday: "Mother's Friendship Day."
Anna Reeves Jarvis sought to honor her own mother by establishing an intimate day of observance that is very obviously the basis of today's holiday. The very first Mother's Day was celebrated in 1908.
After Anna Jarvis created the Mother's Day International Association in order to streamline the intimate day of observance to the second Sunday in May, Woodrow Wilson legitimized the celebration as a nationwide holiday.
The holiday quickly became a commercialized opportunity for producers to sell flowers, candies, and cards. Anna Reeves Jarvis felt this was detracting from the personal and intimate aspects of the holiday and defied this by starting boycotts, walkouts, and even condemned first lady Eleanor Roosevelt for using the day as a means of fundraising. Jarvis would eventually use all her money in this fight, and died at the age of 84 in a sanatorium.
On average, shoppers spend $180 on gifts for their mothers. A nationwide total of $4.6 billion was spent on jewelry and $4.4 billion on dinners or brunches.
Every Mother's Day there are approximately 152 million Mother's Day cards sent.
Anna Reeves Jarvis used the carnation on Mother's Day to symbolize whether your mother was living. A red carnation meant she was, and a white meant she had passed.
Albeit on different days. But in addition to the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, Costa Rica, Samoa, Georgia, Australia, and Thailand all have designated celebrations to honor their country's mothers.
However, flowers still remain the most popular gift option, with about 69% of Americans opting for a floral present. Why not get mom both?
In India, people celebrate Durga-puja, a festival that pays homage to the mother goddess, Durga. The festival is a ten-day event that takes place around September or October.
In 2017, the average age for a first-time mother in the United States was 26.8.
According to the National Retail Federation, this Mother's Day, people will spend $2 billion on personal services (like spa treatments) for their mothers.
The average American buys 2.8 Mother&rsquos Day cards, so most people are buying more than just one for their mom. Many people opt to buy Mother's Day cards for grandmothers, sisters, and their mother-in-law.
Earliest History of Mothers Day
The earliest history of Mothers Day dates back to the ancient annual spring festival the Greeks dedicated to maternal goddesses. The Greeks used the occasion to honor Rhea, wife of Cronus and the mother of many deities of Greek mythology.
Ancient Romans, too, celebrated a spring festival, called Hilaria dedicated to Cybele, a mother goddess. It may be noted that ceremonies in honour of Cybele began some 250 years before Christ was born. The celebration made on the Ides of March by making offerings in the temple of Cybele lasted for three days and included parades, games and masquerades. The celebrations were notorious enough that followers of Cybele were banished from Rome.
Early Christians celebrated a Mother's Day of sorts during the festival on the fourth Sunday of Lent in honor of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ. In England the holiday was expanded to include all mothers. It was then called Mothering Sunday.
Mother's Day History: Mothering Sunday
The more recent history of Mothers Day dates back to 1600s in England. Here a Mothering Sunday was celebrated annually on the fourth Sunday of Lent (the 40 day period leading up to Easter) to honor mothers. After a prayer service in church to honor Virgin Mary, children brought gifts and flowers to pay tribute to their own mothers.
On the occasion, servants, apprentices and other employees staying away from their homes were encouraged by their employers to visit their mothers and honor them. Traditionally children brought with them gifts and a special fruit cake or fruit-filled pastry called a simnel. Yugoslavs and people in other nations have observed similar days.
Custom of celebrating Mothering Sunday died out almost completely by the 19th century. However, the day came to be celebrated again after World War II, when American servicemen brought the custom and commercial enterprises used it as an occasion for sales.
History of Mother's Day: Julia Ward Howe
The idea of official celebration of Mothers day in US was first suggested by Julia Ward Howe in 1872. An activist, writer and poet Julia shot to fame with her famous Civil War song, "Battle Hymn of the Republic". Julia Ward Howe suggested that June 2 be annually celebrated as Mothers Day and should be dedicated to peace. She wrote a passionate appeal to women and urged them to rise against war in her famous Mothers Day Proclamation, written in Boston in 1870. She also initiated a Mothers' Peace Day observance on the second Sunday in June in Boston and held the meeting for a number of years. Julia tirelessly championed the cause of official celebration of Mothers Day and declaration of official holiday on the day. Her idea spread but was later replaced by the Mother's Day holiday now celebrated in May.
History of Mother's Day: Anna Jarvis
Anna Jarvis is recognised as the Founder of Mothers Day in US. Though Anna Jarvis never married and never had kids, she is also known as the Mother of Mothers Day, an apt title for the lady who worked hard to bestow honor on all mothers.
Anna Jarvis got the inspiration of celebrating Mothers Day from her own mother Mrs Anna Marie Reeves Jarvis in her childhood. An activist and social worker, Mrs Jarvis used to express her desire that someday someone must honor all mothers, living and dead, and pay tribute to the contributions made by them.
A loving daughter, Anna never forgot her mothers word and when her mother died in 1905, she resolved to fulfill her mothers desire of having a mothers day. Growing negligent attitude of adult Americans towards their mothers and a desire to honor her mothers soared her ambitions.
To begin with Anna, send Carnations in the church service in Grafton, West Virginia to honor her mother. Carnations were her mothers favorite flower and Anna felt that they symbolised a mothers pure love. Later Anna along with her supporters wrote letters to people in positions of power lobbying for the official declaration of Mothers Day holiday. The hard work paid off. By 1911, Mother's Day was celebrated in almost every state in the Union and on May 8, 1914 President Woodrow Wilson signed a Joint Resolution designating the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day.
History of Mother's Day: Present Day Celebrations
Today Mothers Day is celebrated in several countries including US, UK, India, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia, Mexico, Canada, China, Japan and Belgium. People take the day as an opportunity to pay tribute to their mothers and thank them for all their love and support. The day has become hugely popular and in several countries phone lines witness maximum traffic. There is also a tradition of gifting flowers, cards and others gift to mothers on the Mothers Day. The festival has become commercialised to a great extent. Florists, card manufacturers and gift sellers see huge business potential in the day and make good money through a rigorous advertising campaign.
It is unfortunate to note that Ms Anna Jarvis, who devoted her life for the declaration of Mothers Day holiday was deeply hurt to note the huge commercialisation of the day.
Early History
Arguably, the tradition of a day to celebrate mothers can be traced back to the times of the ancient Greeks, who held festivities to honour Rhea, the mother of the gods.
Early Christians celebrated the fourth Sunday of Lent as a Mother's festival to honour Mary, the mother of Christ.
In the UK, the tradition of Mother's Day is now very similar to its American counterpart, but its origins are different, as the day commemorates returning to your mother church on the fourth Sunday in Lent.
The English colonists who settled in America discontinued the tradition of Mothering Sunday, as presumably, it would have been a bit of a trip to return to their mother church for the day.
The Commercialization of Mother’s Day
Did Anna Jarvis have success getting people to cut down on the consumerism? If you’re considering buying your mother a card or a bouquet of flowers, you’ve got your answer.
The National Retail Federation does a yearly survey to find out how much Americans are planning on spending for Mother’s Day. Here’s a hint: most people aren’t busting out the crayons to make a homemade card.
In 2017, the expected total spending for Mother’s Day in the United States is $23.6 billion. That’s an average of $186.39 per shopper. In the fourteen years the National Retail Federation has conducted the Mother’s Day spending survey, that’s the highest amount yet.
But don’t feel bad if you’re not planning on forking up quite so much. There are plenty of ways to celebrate Mom without emptying your wallet. It’s all about making it special.
St Distaff’s Day 2021 Date and Significance: Know the History & Traditions of the Observance Marking the Day When Spinners Return to Work After Holidays
Distaff Day, also called Roc Day or Rock Day is observed on January 7. The observance falls on the day after the feast of the Epiphany. It is the day when spinners go back to work after the holidays. Most of what we know about Saint Distaff’s Day comes from a poem called ‘Saint Distaff’s Day’, or the ‘Morrow After Twelfth Day’, by Robert Herrick from his 1648 book Hesperides. It is also known as Saint Distaff’s Day. All Saint’s Day 2020 Date And Significance: Know The History And Events Related to the Christian Observance That Honours Saints And Martyrs.
The first Monday after Epiphany is known as Plough Monday, which was traditionally the day when agricultural workers, mostly male, returned to work after the Christmas festivities. In England, St. Distaff’s Day marked women’s return to work after the Christmas holiday. Before the invention of factory-made cloth, spinning was representative of female chores which were done by women of all income, ranks and ages.
There is no saint named Distaff and the name refers to one of the principal tools women used in spinning. It is a rod upon which flax or wool was tied out of which thread was pulled. This tool was also known as a ‘rock’, hence the day was also known as ‘Rock Day’.
Although English custom encouraged women to return to work, men had to come back only by Plough Monday. This inequality became the subject of many Distaff Day customs. While women returned to work, custom encourages men to tease women setting their flax or wool on fire. And in return, women put buckets of water on men. Also, very little work is actually accomplished on St. Distaff’s Day due to these customs and traditions.
