Mother's Day is celebrated in the United States on the second Sunday in May every year. This year, Mother's Day is on May 13. It is the time set aside to celebrate mothers and the institution of motherhood. The date is not the same in every country. In some places, the celebration comes as early as February and March. A report by History.com presented most of the details used in this article.

The proposal was first rejected

There are many interesting things about the national holiday. Anna Jarvis began campaigning in 1905 for the holiday, the same year her mother died.

Three years later, Jarvis honored her own mother, Ann Reeves, at St. Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia. Jarvis wanted a day set aside to honor not only her mother but a day to honor all mothers.

The United States Congress first rejected Jarvis' proposal to make Mother's Day an official holiday. By 1911, all the states observed the day, and some of them officially recognized Mother's Day as a local holiday. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation for celebration to be held on the second Sunday in May as a national holiday to honor mothers.

Jarvis protested commercialization

Jarvis fought long and hard to get Mother's Day recognized. A few years later, she resented it because the occasion had become commercialized.

In the early 1920s, the greeting card companies started selling cards and florists began selling carnations.

Jarvis thought companies should not profit because of the holiday. She believed people should honor their mothers with handwritten notes instead of store-bought cards. She wrote that a printed cards came from people who were lazy and given to their mothers who had done more for them than anyone else.

She added that some people give their mothers candy and eat most of it themselves.

She protested and was arrested at a candy maker's convention for disturbing the peace. It is ironic that she was put in jail for something related to the holiday she had originally campaigned to get passed into law. She spent her last years and went broke trying to get Mother's Day abolished.

The holiday today

Jarvis died in 1948, but she would be very upset if she knew how commercialized Mother's Day has become. Individuals are expected to spend about $172.22 on gifts for their mothers.

Collectively, about $21.4 billion will be spent nationwide. That's more than the $19.7 billion that was spent on Valentine's Day. The things people mostly spend money on are greeting cards, jewelry, and going out for brunch or dinner, according to the National Retail Federation.
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