Mother's Day in America

In the United States the tradition to celebrate a Mother's Day annually was initiated nearly 150 years ago by Anna Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker when she organised a day to raise awareness of poor living conditions in her community, she believed this would be best advocated by mothers. She called it "Mother's Work Day." 

Fifteen years later, Julia Ward Howe, a Boston poet, pacifist, suffragette, and the author of the lyrics to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," organised a day encouraging mothers to rally for peace, since she believed they bore the loss of human life more harshly than anyone else. 

In 1905 when Anna Jarvis died, her daughter, also named Anna, began a campaign to remember the life work of her mother. 

Anna began to lobby prominent businessmen and politicians including Presidents Taft and Roosevelt to support her campaign to create a special day to honour mothers. At one of the first services organised to celebrate Anna's mother in 1908, at her church in West Virginia, Anna handed out her mother's favourite flower, the white carnation. Five years later, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling for officials of the government to wear white carnations on Mother's Day. 

In 1914 all Anna's hard work paid off when the then President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, signed a bill recognising Mother's Day as a national holiday. 

Initially people observed Mother's Day by attending church, writing letters to their mothers, and eventually, by sending cards, presents, and flowers. With the increasing gift-giving activity associated with Mother's Day, Anna Jarvis became downhearted believing that the day's sentiment was being sacrificed at the expense of greed and profit. In 1923 she filed a lawsuit to try and stop a Mother's Day festival, and was even arrested for disturbing the peace at a convention selling carnations for a war mother's group. 

© Beacon Support Services Ltd. 2004.