The woman behind Mother's Day

Mothers have been celebrated for hundreds of years - but the official Mother's Day was started in the US by a woman named Anna Jarvis. In 1907, two years after her own mother's death, she held a memorial at her home and invited a handful of her friends over to celebrate with her. It was there that she announced her intention to start a holiday to recognize mothers, and in 1914, she succeeded in getting the holiday nationally recognized.

Unfortunately, in the 1920's, Anna Jarvis became disillusioned by the commercialism and half-hearted efforts many people put into the holiday, and began her second crusade for Mother's Day - this one to have the holiday stopped. Fortunately for mothers everywhere, although unfortunately for Jarvis, there was not stopping this holiday. One of Jarvis's biggest griefs about what the holiday had become was that people were not putting the love and devotion into expressing their feelings of gratitude to their mothers as she had intended. Instead, they were sending preprinted, store-bought greeting cards and gifts. She was quoted as 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!"

While I disagree that we should do away with the holiday all together, maybe putting a little more time into the thought isn't a bad idea. My sister is one of those moms that puts other moms to shame. She works with her kids to make craft projects for our mother for each holiday occasion, and often does the same for our grandmothers and her mothers-in-law. She really puts a lot of thought and heart into what she does, and her gifts are personal and made with love. Even though her boys are very young and the paint is sometimes sloppy, the gifts are that much more special because they're not a generic something that hundreds of other people are going to have the same item sitting on their self gathering dust.

Please don't misunderstand me! I'm definitely not saying that store-bought items are bad gifts and that everything should be home or hand-made! I'd never get anything done if that was the case! But taking the time to really put some thought into the gift rather than rushing in at the last minute sure does make a difference in the gift-buying, giving, and receiving process.

So, don't let the commercialism of this or any holiday get you down. Fight back by putting the time, effort, and love back into it, and in doing so, you're sure to enjoy the holiday more, and you'll be sure to make some memories that last!

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The woman behind Mother's Day

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