INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Mother's Day: Anna Jarvis is the founder of the Mother's Day.New Delhi: Mother's Day 2018 will be celebrated
across the world on May 13
It's a day to honour the mothers and express one's love and gratitude towards them
Many, however, started to feel that this day became commercialized, including the Mother's Day founder Anna Jarvis.Mother's Day was first
celebrated in 1908, when Anna Jarvis, a US national, held a memorial for her mother at St Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton in West
She campaigned to make Mother's Day a recognized holiday in the United States after her mother Ann Reeves Jarvis, a peace activist, died in
Ann Jarvis cared for wounded soldiers on both sides of the American Civil War, and created Mother's Day Work Clubs to address people's
health issues.To honor her mother by continuing the work she started, she campaigned to set aside a day to honor all the mothers as she
believed a mother is "the person who has done more for you than anyone in the world".Former US President Woodrow Wilson in 1914 signed a
proclamation and designated Mother's Day, held on the second Sunday in May, as a national holiday to honour mothers.By the early 1920s,
however, card companies started selling Mother's Day cards
Anna Jarvis believed that this exploited the idea of Mother's Day."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," she had said.After the commercialization of the day, Anna Jarvis organised boycotts of Mother's Day, and threatened to
issue lawsuits against the companies involved
She also protested against this at various public meetings.While others profited from the day, Anna's efforts to hold on to the original
meaning of the day led to her own economic hardship
Her committee supported her and helped to continue her movement during her declining health
She died on November 24, 1948.
