May 11, 2007
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED HOW A WORD, IDIOM OR PHRASE ORIGINATED IN THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE?
Although the first North American Mother’s Day was conceptualized in 1870 with Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation, the true spirit and force behind a national Mother’s Day in America was Anna Jarvis.
Yes, believe or not, one person almost single-handedly promoted a national day of recognition for mothers in America, yet very few people are aware of Anna Jarvis.
Since childhood, her mother (Anna Reeves Jarvis) often commented that someone should establish a memorial day for mothers. When Mrs. Jarvis died in May of 1905, Anna devoted her life to making her mother’s dream come true. She petitioned clergy, politicians, and women’s groups extensively, and she especially petitioned the superintendent of the church where her mother had spent over 20 years teaching Sunday School.
Her request was finally honored on May 10, 1908, when the first official Mother’s Day celebration took place at Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia and a church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
It would behoove all of us to take time to research this fine lady’s efforts, because it is a story of triumph and success won by a tenacious individual trying to do the right thing. And yet, it is also a classic American tragedy, because Anna Jarvis spent her fortune and the last twenty years of her life trying to stop the inevitable commercialization of Mother’s Day.
For more detail, please read the attached pdf posting. As always, I hope this stimulates your own research, and I would appreciate your feedback.
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