Mother's Day -- Let No Carnation Fade

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.)