Mothers Day Surprise

As I write this article, Mother’s day is right around the corner. It’s one of those Holiday’s that keeps Hallmark in business. Contrary to popular belief though, Mother’s Day was not created by Hallmark. In fact, in the United States, a lady named Anna Jarvis organized a day to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community almost 150 years ago. She called it “Mother’s Work Day,” because she thought it would be best advocated by Mothers. When Anna died in 1905, her daughter, also named Anna, began to lobby prominent businessmen and politicians to create a special day to honor mothers in order to memorialize the life work of Anna Sr. 9 years later in 1914, Woodrow Wilson signed a bill recognizing Anna’s hard work by making Mother’s Day a national holiday.

Everything was great for a while as people starting observing Mother’s Day by attending church and writing letters to their mothers. Then, people started sending and giving gifts. This enraged Anna who believed that greed and profit was destroying the day’s sentiment. In 1923, she actually filed a lawsuit to stop a Mother’s Day festival, and when she died in 1948, Anna is said to have confessed that she regretted ever starting the mother’s day tradition.

Wow. Think about that. What have you started in the past that hasn’t quite turned out the way you expected? What things have you started that ended up being completely different at the end? As a kid, did you ever start drawing a picture of something – say a horse and it ended up looking more like a big dog or even worse, a pig?

Oink.

Now, while Mother’s Day may not have been what she had originally intended, what Anna failed to recognize is that she did start a powerful movement to recognize mothers. However commercialized, the original sentiment that Anna wanted is still there with many people – to appreciate our mothers.

And I for one appreciate mine. Hope you appreciate yours too.