Give a nod today to Anna Jarvis, the driving force behind Mother’s Day and the real reason we celebrate the event as a national holiday.
Jarvis organized observances in honor of mothers in Grafton, W.Va., and Philadelphia, Penn., 101 years ago today, on May 10, 1908. Later, as the annual observation grew in popularity, Jarvis asked members of Congress to set aside a day to honor moms. That happened in 1914, when Congress designated the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.
Jarvis struggled for years before getting national attention for Mother’s Day, following the death of her own mother. In 1907, she distributed 500 white carnations at her mother’s church, St. Andrew’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, W.Va., one for each mother in the congregation. She believed mothers deserved recognition, but that it should come from sincere efforts, not items bought at a store. Later, when Mother’s Day greeting cards grew in popularity, Jarvis called them “a poor excuse for the letter you are too lazy to write.”
She also opposed commercialization of Mother’s Day, including selling flowers. “I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit,” she stressed.
This woman who worked so hard to keep focus on mothers never had children of her own. She died in 1948 and was buried next to her mother in a cemetery outside Philadelphia.
We’ll not be as hard on readers as Jarvis might have been. The sentiment of this holiday is what is most important. Cards and flowers are still the most common gifts for moms, more than 100 years after Jarvis began her crusade, but several national polls indicate the number one thing moms want is more time with their families.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are more than 83 million mothers in the United States and only 5.8 million of them are stay-at-home moms, a huge change from Jarvis’ day. Overwhelmingly, in 2009, moms are working outside the home. And in this recession, moms are supporting their families more than ever before. Many of the jobs lost have been in traditionally men’s fields – manufacturing, construction, skilled trades. Fewer layoffs have occurred in traditionally women’s fields, such as education and nursing. So in many families, Mom might now be the sole breadwinner, while Dad searches for another job.
If this is the case in your family, it’s one more reason to say thank you to your mother, or wife. Economic strain, visible or not, is one more task great moms carry, without grumbling.
So give your mom, or any mom you come across today, some special thanks. Offer a promise of help or more time together. It’s what they want, it lasts and it’s a gift that pays off for everyone.
That’s what Jarvis really had in mind.
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