Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis
Things
My Mother Taught Me
(from Splitcoaststampers)
My Mother taught me
LOGIC..."If you fall off that swing and break your neck, you
can't go to the store with me."
My Mother taught me
MEDICINE..."If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they're going
to freeze that way."
My Mother taught me TO
THINK AHEAD..."If you don't pass your spelling test, you'll
never get a good job!"
My Mother taught me
ESP..."Put your sweater on; don't you think that I know when
you're cold?"
My Mother taught me TO
MEET A CHALLENGE..."What were you thinking? Answer me when I
talk to you...Don't talk back to me!"
My Mother taught me
HUMOR..."When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come
running to me."
My Mother taught me how to
BECOME AN ADULT..."If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll
never grow up.
My mother taught me ABOUT
SEX..."How do you think you got here?"
My mother taught me about
GENETICS..."You are just like your father!"
My mother taught me about
my ROOTS..."Do you think you were born in a barn?"
My mother taught me about
the WISDOM of AGE..."When you get to be my age, you will
understand."
My mother taught me about
ANTICIPATION..."Just wait until your father gets home."
My mother taught me about
RECEIVING..."You are going to get it when we get home."
And, my all-time favorite
- JUSTICE..."One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out
just like YOU -- then you'll see what it's like."
A Brief History of
America's Mother's Day
Celebrations of mothers
and motherhood are traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, but
the clearest modern precedent for Mother’s Day is the early
Christian festival known as “Mothering Sunday.” Once a major
tradition in parts of Europe, this celebration fell on the fourth
Sunday in Lent and was originally seen as a time when the faithful
would return to their “mother church” – the main church in the
vicinity of their home – for a special service.
Over time the Mothering
Sunday tradition shifted into a more secular holiday. The American
incarnation of Mother’s Day was created by Anna Marie Jarvis of
West Virginia, whose mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis, had started
“Mothers’ Day Work Clubs” to teach local women how to properly
care for their children.
In 1858, while pregnant
with her sixth child, Ann Jarvis began Mothers’ Day Work Clubs in
the towns of Grafton, Pruntytown, Philippi, Fetterman, and Webster to
improve health and sanitary conditions. She and other area women
joined a growing public health movement in the United States.
Jarvis’ clubs sought to
provide assistance and education to families in order to reduce
disease and infant mortality. These clubs raised money to buy
medicine and to hire women to work in families where the mother
suffered from tuberculosis or other health problems. They developed
programs to inspect milk long before there were state requirements.
Club members visited households to educate mothers and their families
about improving sanitation and overall health. The clubs benefited
from the advice of Jarvis’ brother, Dr. James Reeves, who was known
for his work in the typhoid fever epidemics in northwestern Virginia.
(West Virginia State
Archives, “Anna Maria Reeves Jarvis,” West Virginia Archives and
History. And Katherine Lane Antolini, “Memorializing Motherhood:
Anna Jarvis and the Struggle for Control of Mother’s Day,” PhD
diss., West Virginia University, 2009)
Following her mother’s
death in 1905, Anna Marie Jarvis conceived of Mother’s Day as a way
of honoring the sacrifices mothers made for their children. In May
1908, she organized the first official Mother’s Day celebration at
a Methodist church in Grafton, West Virginia.
Following the success of
her first Mother’s Day, Jarvis – who remained unmarried and
childless her whole life – resolved to see her holiday added to the
national calendar. Arguing that American holidays were biased toward
male achievements, she started a massive letter writing campaign to
newspapers and prominent politicians urging the adoption of a special
day honoring motherhood.
By 1912 many states, towns
and churches had adopted Mother’s Day as an annual holiday, and
Jarvis had established the Mother’s Day International Association
to help promote her cause. Her persistence paid off in 1914 when
President Woodrow Wilson signed a measure officially establishing the
second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.
Not everyone was a fan of
the holiday. Some politicians mocked the idea. Colorado Sen. Henry
Moore Teller called the idea of a holiday "puerile,"
"absolutely absurd" and "trifling." New Hampshire
Sen. Jacob Gallinger said the idea of having a holiday for mothers
was an insult, as though his memory of his late mother "could
only be kept green by some outward demonstration on Sunday, May 10."
Mother's Day grew in
popularity as most favored the commemoration. Jarvis, herself, valued
the symbolism of such tangible items as the white carnation emblem,
which she described as:
“Its whiteness is to
symbolize the truth, purity and broad-charity of mother love; its
fragrance, her memory, and her prayers. The carnation does not drop
its petals, but hugs them to its heart as it dies, and so, too,
mothers hug their children to their hearts, their mother love never
dying. When I selected this flower, I was remembering my mother’s
bed of white pinks.”
(Katherine
Lane Anatolini. “Memorializing Motherhood: Anna Jarvis and the
Struggle for Control of Mother's Day” (PhD Diss). West Virginia
University. 2009.)
Flowers become forever
connected to the holiday. Of course, so did businesses cashing in on
financial gain. Soon, Jarvis denounced the holiday’s
commercialization that overwhelmed her original message, and she
spent the latter part of her life trying to remove it from the
calendar.
Among some of these forces
were the confection, floral and greeting card industry. The symbols
that she had valued for their sentimentality, such as the white
carnation, easily became commodified and commercialized.
By the 1920s, as the
floral industry continued increasing prices of white carnations and
then introduced red carnations to meet the demand for the flower,
Anna Jarvis' original symbols began to become re-appropriated, such
as the red carnation representing living mothers and the white
carnation honoring deceased mothers. She attempted to counter these
commercial forces, creating a badge with a Mother’s Day emblem as a
less ephemeral alternative to the white carnation. Her negative
opinion of these commercial forces was evident in her contemporary
commentary, saying:
“A printed card means
nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has
done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy! You take a box
to Mother – and then eat most of it yourself. A pretty sentiment.”
(Malcolm
S. Forbes and Jeff Bloch. Women Who Made a Difference. Simon &
Schuster. 1991.)
But … Did Anna Jarvis
set herself up for failure? Initially, she took money where she could
to help launch and officiate her holiday. The floral industry wisely
supported her Mother’s Day movement, and she didn’t think twice
about accepting their donations and even spoke at their conventions.
Jarvis's efforts to hold
on to the original meaning of the day led to her own economic
hardship. While others profited from the day, Jarvis did not, and she
spent the later years of her life with her sister Lillie. In 1943,
she began organizing a petition to rescind Mother's Day. However,
these efforts were halted when she was placed in the Marshall Square
Sanitarium in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where she spent her last
days deeply in debt.
Perhaps the biggest
irony? People connected with the floral and greeting card industries
paid the bills to keep her in the sanitarium. Anna Jarvis died there
on November 24, 1948.
("Take A
Second To Salute Anna Jarvis, The Mother Of Mother's Day.” NPR. May
8, 2016.)
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