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View Full Version : The founder of Mother's Day...crazy or did she have a point?



deborah_r
05-10-2010, 04:45 PM
I was justing weading this on Wiki (this is just a tiny snippet):

"By the 1920s, Anna Jarvis had become soured by the commercialization of the holiday. She incorporated herself as the Mother’s Day International Association, trademarked the phrases "second Sunday in May" and "Mother's Day", and was once arrested for disturbing the peace. She and her sister Ellsinore spent their family inheritance campaigning against what the holiday had become. Both died in poverty. According to her New York Times obituary, Jarvis became embittered because too many people sent their mothers a printed greeting card."

She died in poverty campaigning against the holiday she had started? I understand she was upset about the commercialization (and I agree) but I was surprised to read to what great lengths she went to fight it.

I wanted to look up the history of the holiday because DH thinks it (and Father's Day) are just silliness, and I don't totally disagree with him.

ETA: LOL, "weading" - that's my new term for reading Wikipedia articles, I guess.

cottagemom
05-10-2010, 05:28 PM
Here is a video about the history of Mother's Day. She wanted it as a protest against war.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtzAwo1HU2w

maestramommy
05-10-2010, 09:35 PM
It's funny you posted this because the children's sermon on Sunday was about Anna Jarvis. I didn't know about her, and it made me think about how far removed "our" current idea of MD is from what she intended. It was certainly food for thought.

cottagemom
05-11-2010, 11:21 AM
I'd gladly give up Mother's Day as it is now, for knowing I would never have to send one of my sons in to a war zone because the world was at peace.