Anna Jarvis: Original Mother’s Day Peace Activist
“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!” ~Anna Jarvis, the woman who campaigned for seven years to make “Mother’s Day” a recognized holiday in the U.S.
Anna Jarvis began celebrating Mother’s Day in 1907, two years after her dearly beloved mother died. On the second Sunday in May, she called together friends and family to commemorate the death of her mother, Ann Maria — a tireless peace activist. Jarvis also asked everyone to wear white carnations, which were her mother’s favorite flower.
A year later, Anna asked the officials of her church in Grafton, West Virginia, if they could set aside a Sunday to honor all mothers. The church agreed. Things snowballed, and in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared Mother’s Day a national holiday.
But, only a few years later, Anna Jarvis changed her mind.
Promoting Peace, Not Greeting Cards
Jarvis quickly grew embittered at the way Americans commercialized the holiday she’d worked so hard to found. The original Mother’s Day was centered around Jarvis’s own mother’s social activism and had more to do with protesting war and promoting peace and pacifism than appreciating mothers.
Contrary to the yearly anti-war promotion of peace which Anna Jarvis had envisioned to honor her mother, America became infatuated with buying chocolates, flowers, and greeting cards.
Jarvis, along with her sister, spent her family inheritance campaigning against the holiday. On November 24, 1948, the founder of Mother’s Day died childless, blind, and in poverty.
So, in deference to the wishes of Mrs. Anna Jarvis, here’s a salute to all mothers today, but especially to the mothers whose children have been killed and mamed fighting for natural resources in a foreign country so that Halliburton and ExxonMobil CEOs can turn million dollar salaries, and so that the rest of us can drive an SUV thirty miles to work each day. Your courage and sacrifice is commendable.
Read More: Mother’s Day, Anna Jarvis, pacifism, peace activist, anti-corporate activism
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