Few
holidays succeed in disappointing mothers and striking terror into the
hearts of fathers on an annual basis more than Mother's Day. The
holiday—which once served as a simple way to honor mothers—now conjures
up images of crowded brunches, breakfast in bed, and sappy Hallmark
cards. It's developed into a commercialized, ridiculous holiday
overwrought with expectations.
It wasn't always this way. Anna Jarvis spearheaded the first Mother's
Day events in 1908 to honor her own mother, a Sunday School teacher and
caregiver for wounded soldiers during the Civil War. From that point
on, she campaigned zealously for the holiday to become official and in
1914, Congress recognized it as such. Quickly, the floral and
greeting-card industries became enraptured with the commercial
possibilities of the holiday.
By 1920, disgusted by the onslaught of
remunerative avenues, Jarvis began urging people to stop buying flowers
and cards for their mothers. In a press release, she wrote
florists and greeting card manufacturers were "charlatans, bandits,
pirates, racketeers, kidnappers and termites that would undermine with
their greed one of the finest, noblest and truest movements and
celebrations." She went door-to-door collecting petitions to rescind
Mother's Day and spent the rest of her life trying to abolish the
holiday she founded.
