By Laura Rahill
The number of Hallmark cards sent last year for Mother’s Day was 133 million. Of course, like all holidays, this observance was not always a purely commercial one but rather has roots dating as far back as ancient Greece.
The ancient Greeks held an annual spring festival dedicated to maternal goddesses such as Rhea, wife of Cronus. Ancient Romans also celebrated a spring festival, called Hilaria, which also honored a mother goddess, Cybele.
In early Christianity, on the forth Sunday of Lent, Christians held a festival in honor of the Virgin Mary, mother of Christ, a figure who is still to this day honored within the Christian faith. On this same occasion, those who were living away from home were encouraged to visit their own mothers, and it was not uncommon for them to present their mothers with gifts such as fruit cake.
Much later, in the late 1800s, the idea of an official celebration of Mother’s Day in the United States was suggested by activist, writer and poet Julia Ward Howe. Howe recommended that June 2 be dedicated to peace and mothers.
In her famous Mother’s Day proclamation, she wrote an appeal to women, urging them to rise against war. This celebration later faded into non-existence to be replaced by Mother’s Day as we know it today, celebrated in May.
Anna Jarvis is considered the founder of Mother’s Day in the United States. Acting on a wish of her late, beloved mother, Jarvis worked to see an official Mother’s Day holiday added to the national calendar.
In May 1908, after gaining financial backing from a Philadelphia department store owner named John Wanamaker, Jarvis organized the first official Mother’s Day celebration at a Methodist church in West Virginia.
This day was a success, which prompted Jarvis to start a letter-writing campaign to newspapers and prominent politicians urging the addition of this day to the national calendar. Jarvis established the Mother’s Day International Association to help promote her cause.
In 1914, Jarvis’ persistence finally paid off when then-President Woodrow Wilson signed a measure officially establishing the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.
What had started off as a celebration of her mother and all mothers had now become a way for businesses to cash in on and make a profit.
By 1948, at the time of her death, Jarvis had disowned the holiday and even lobbied the government to see it removed from the American calendar. It is a rather bitter twist of faith for Jarvis that Mother’s Day is now the third biggest commercial holiday after Christmas and Valentine’s Day in the United States.
Today, Mother’s Day is about showering our mothers and mother figures with lavish gifts and flowers, but although Jarvis was disgusted by the commercialization of the holiday she had founded, let us not forget the true meaning of her legacy: celebrating the hard work, commitment and dedication of those special ladies in our lives.
This coming Sunday is about acknowledging these women who often put the needs of others before their own. Happy Mother’s Day to my mother, and to all you other wonderful moms out there.
