Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia campaigned for the holiday on behalf of her mother
who was unhappy about the hatred that evolved during the Civil War. Her mother
believed that a great healing between the North and South would occur if soldiers
honored their mothers on a special day that would make them forget about the
war. Anna and her supporters wrote thousands of letters to businessmen, politicians,
and clergymen, seeking their help in establishing the holiday.
Anna persuaded her mother's church to celebrate the holiday on the anniversary
of her mother's death, the 2nd Sunday in May. Within just two short years, the
day was celebrated in nearly every state in the U.S. Ultimately, President Woodrow
Wilson officially recognized Mother’s Day in 1914, and today it’s
celebrated throughout the world.
End of story? Not quite. Upset that the holiday had become too commercialized,
Anna filed a lawsuit in 1923 to stop a Mother's Day festival. She was later
arrested for disturbing the peace at a Mother's Day convention where she was
outraged to find vendors profiting from the sale of white carnations, which
she had designated as the official symbol of mothers. Anna never married...
never had any children... and eventually admitted to being sorry she ever started
the holiday because she wanted it to be an expression of sentiment, not a vehicle
for profit.
Today, many people still follow the tradition of wearing a carnation on Mother's
Day. A colored carnation means that a person's mother is living, while a white
carnation honors a mother who has passed away.
