It’s the first of May, and in the US, that means Mother’s Day is coming up soon. It’s a strange holiday in many respects, and seems to mostly exist to support the greeting card, candy, flower shop, and restaurant industries. And it was founded by Anna Maria Jarvis, who was born May 1, 1864 in Grafton, West Virginia in the US.
Jarvis was the ninth of eleven children in her family, although seven of the children died in early childhood. Her mother was a social activist and also very active in the Grafton Methodist church, where she taught Sunday school. It was during one of the classes she taught that her daughter was inspired to create Mother’s Day, based on her mother’s offhand mention that somebody should recognize mothers for their “matchless service to humanity.”
Jarvis attended college, and after she graduated became a teacher, then a “literary and advertising editor” for an insurance company in Philadelphia. She also became a founding shareholder in the Quaker City Cab Company, which her brother started. She always stayed in close correspondence with her mother, and when her father died in 1902, convinced her mother to move to Philadelphia to live with her and her brother. Jarvis eventually spent most of her time caring for her mother, who died in 1905.
Three years later, Jarvis held a memorial ceremony in the Methodist church in Grafton where she honored her mother as well as all mothers. It’s recognized as the first observance of Mother’s Day, and the church is still there, but now it’s an historic landmark known as the International Mother’s Day Shrine.
Mother’s Day caught on nationwide, and Jarvis always insisted that she was the leader of it and everyone should commemorate it as she recommended. Her recommendations were simple; she designated a white carnation to be the symbol of the day, and was very critical of the Mother’s Day greeting cards that became popular, as well as the commercial gifts (a box of candy was quite popular too). In her own words: “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.”
Nevertheless, Mother’s Day continued to become more and more commercialized, even though Jarvis herself didn’t earn a penny from it. She even started a petition, in 1943, to take it all back and cancel Mother’s Day. Unfortunately her health deteriorated and she had to move into a sanitarium that offered nursing care to the elderly. She couldn’t pay for it, but the very commercial enterprises that annoyed her — the floral and greeting card industries — paid for her care for the rest of her life. What she thought about that is a mystery.
Another mystery is that the mother of Mother’s Day never became a mother herself; she never married or had children. You can still visit the International Mother’s Day Shrine, and even have a tour, but make sure you call first. It’s only open by appointment. And according to the official website, the place doesn’t even sell greeting cards.
