Mother's Day: A history and why creator Anna Jarvis came to dislike the holiday

Anna Jarvis created Mother’s Day to celebrate her own mother, got President Woodrow Wilson to make it a national holiday, but the commercialism of the holiday made her come to hate what she'd created.

According to TIME, the idea for Mother’s Day came three years after Jarvis lost her own mother. She wanted the holiday to include making a visit to mothers, wearing a white carnation and making a trip to church.

Her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, had created “Mothers’ Day Work Clubs” before the Civil War to teach the women of West Virginia basic child care. Other variations of a day to honor mothers came about after that as well, but it wasn't yet an official holiday.

The national holiday journey began when Jarvis got financial backing from John Wanamaker, a Philadelphia department store owner, for a local event, which was a success. She then petitioned legislatures across the United States to honor the sacrifices of mothers. By 1912, many states and local churches had adopted the holiday. But it wasn't until in 1914 that President Woodrow Wilson signed the measure establishing the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.

By 1924 Jarvis was unhappy with how her plans were adopted by the nation. A Miami Daily News story attributed her as saying, “Commercialization of Mother’s Day is growing every year. Since the movement has spread to all parts of the world, many things have tried to attach themselves because of its success.”

She spent the end of her life trying to get the holiday removed from the calendar, going so far as launching lawsuits against groups using the term "Mother's Day."

Jarvis was unsuccessful in having the day removed and today we still spend the day buying our moms flowers, cards and candy.

However, her efforts to promote women through the holiday were not in vain. From the 1968 Mother’s Day march Coretta Scott King held in support of underprivileged women and children to women’s groups in the 1970s  who used the day as a platform to demand equal rights and access to childcare, the day has had more value than just money through history.

Whether or not buying flowers and cards for moms is the best way to celebrate them, the intent Jarvis had to honor the hard work mothers do every day was never lost.