"Anti"-Mother's Day

Anna Jarvis

1864-1948

In 1905, the year her mother (Ann Jarvis) died, Anna Jarvis started a campaign to make Mother's Day a nationally recognized holiday. Ann Jarvis had been a Civil War peace activist who cared for injured soldiers and later created a Mother's Day Work Club devoted to addressing public health issues and Civil War reconciliation.

Anna's original idea was that Mother's Day (to honor her mother's vision for Mother's Day community service) should be a day of simple family gatherings to rest, appreciate and honor their mothers through warm expressions of gratitude/ affection and deliver handwritten letters. Her hard-fought campaign was eventually successful and in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson set aside the second Sunday in May as our national Mother's Day. 

Unfortunately, the holiday quickly became commercialized by greeting card companies, flower shops, and candy makers.  Anna felt that her idea of a "Simple" Mother's Day had turned into a day of commercialized profit and easily purchased, inconsequential gifts.


Estimated Top 5 $$$ Holiday Spending

1. Thanksgiving/ Winter Holidays: $675B
2.  Back to School "Holiday": $80B
3.  Mother's Day: $25B
4. Valentine's Day: $20B
5. Easter: $17B

"Mom, Happy Mother's Day 2016!"

Jarvis became resentful and spent the rest of her life boycotting Mother's Day and was even arrested (disturbing the peace) in 1925 for protesting against the wanton commercialization of the day...

I wonder how she would react to 2016? 

KEEP MOTHER'S DAY SIMPLE!