Mother’s Day honors motherhood and in the United States, it is traditionally celebrated on the second Sunday of May. This holiday was established and founded in 1907 by Anna Jarvis of the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia.
In 1905 Jarvis initiated a campaign to make Mother’s Day a recognized holiday in the United States because of the death of her mother that year. By 1911 all U.S. states observed the holiday.
Later in 1914, Jarvis would denounce the commercialization of the holiday and spent the latter part of her life trying to remove it from the calendar. In the early 1920s, Hallmark Cards and other companies started selling Mother’s Day cards. Jarvis became resentful because her founding of this celebration was not for financial gain but for the recognition of motherhood.
Motherhood for the majority of the mothers of the world is not the second Sunday in May. The day every woman gives birth to their first child is the day that motherhood begins. Jarvis organized boycotts of the holiday and threatened to issue lawsuits against the companies involved.
Jarvis stated that
people should appreciate and honor their mothers through handwritten letters expressing their love and gratitude, instead of buying gifts and pre-made cards
Holidays not Cheerful For Everyone
Mother’s Day and other holidays are not celebratory events for everyone. These holidays for many people can be an especially painful time of the year. Many are grieving the loss of loved ones and may be estranged from their families or experiencing fertility challenges.
Local radio and TV advertisements are a painful reminder to many that Mother’s Day is approaching. These reminders urge people to buy gifts and celebrate their mothers, but how does this affect the people that have lost their mothers?
The coronavirus pandemic made people have to celebrate a little differently. Facetime and zoom conferencing became popular as a means to still feel in touch with their mothers on what society has stated is her special day.
Rebecca Soffer, co-founder of an organization called The Modern Loss Community says
Mothers’ Day is for many people the mother of all trigger days with regard to Hallmark holidays, because it’s seemingly the one day of the year that every single company on Earth … is screaming at you that Mother’s Day is coming up
Soofer finds Mother’s Day and Father’s Day to be bittersweet. She lost both parents in her 30s and having her own children now recognizes that living with a personal loss of a loved one is a struggle.
How Should This Holiday Be Celebrated?
If people all over the world would celebrate Mother’s Day on the day that she became a mother, this celebration would be personal and the second Sunday in May would not be a day of personal sorrow for many. People would have a choice to personally celebrate this special day or use it to remember a very special mother.
Written by Omari Jahi
Source:
The Times of India: Mother’s Day 2022: History, Significance, and Poem by Mahima Sharma
NPR WBEZ Chicago: Mother’s Day can be painful. These strategies might help by Rachel Treisman
History: History of Mother’s Day
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