By: Brittney Corrado, Alisha Bains, and Laila Schwin
May 7, 2021
In 1905, a woman named Anna Jarvis started a campaign for an official holiday honoring mothers. She started this the year when her own mother died as a way to honor her.
The first celebration that was held for Mother’s Day was in 1908 in Grafton, West Virginia. Mother’s Day became an official holiday in 1914. Since then, Mother’s Day has become a representation of respect, honor, and love towards truly-devoted moms.
Different versions of Mother’s Day are celebrated all around the world. In Thailand, for example, Mother’s Day is celebrated in August on the birthday of the current queen, Sirikit. In Ethiopia, families gather each Fall to sing songs and to eat a large feast as part of Antrosht, a multi-day celebration honoring motherhood. These are just a few of the many Mother’s Day traditions and celebrations known worldwide.
Mother’s Day has also been a date for bringing awareness to women’s rights. In 1968, Coretta Scott King, MLK’s wife, used Mother’s Day to lead a march to support underprivileged women and children. In 1970, certain women’s groups used the holiday as a time to highlight the need for equal rights and access to childcare.
Ann Reeves Jarvis, mother of Anna Jarvis, was a large contributor to the development of Mother’s Day, as she organized “Mother’s Day Work Clubs” before the Civil War to help teach mothers various childcare skills. These meetings became a unifying event during an area of division during the Civil War and developed into “Mother’s Friendship Day”. This friendship day started in 1868 and included mothers of both former Union and Confederate soldiers in an attempt to reconcile relations between both sides after the war.
The concept of the holiday changed from there and was more focused on mothers promoting world peace. Eventually, though, after years of her organizing for it, Jarvis got her holiday signed into the calendar by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914.
The joy of this event did not last long, and Jarvis spent years afterwards regretting her decision as Mother’s Day became commercialized and about gifts instead of the value of one’s mother and connecting with family. She even attempted to get the holiday removed from the calendar as she was so disgusted by the consumerism.
However, Mother’s Day has prevailed and became a different event because of this. It has become a mix of both avenues, not only gifts but also a day to appreciate our mothers.
This year, Mother’s Day will be celebrated on Sunday, May 9. This day is devoted to all moms, but they should be celebrated 365 days of the year because they are the best.
Happy Mother’s Day to all moms!
{Information for this article was retrieved from History.com.}
THE RETURN OF THE EYE 