Mother's Day is a dangerous day if you don't get it right! To make a mess of Mother's Day is as bad as flubbing an anniversary or a birthday. It's a big deal!
History tells us that Mother's Day was a dangerous day for Anna Jarvis too. In 1925 she was arrested for disturbing the peace as she protested the selling of carnations at a candy makers convention in Philadelphia. Who was Anna Jarvis and why was she so upset that carnations were being sold in Philadelphia? She was the catalyst behind the movement to establish Mother’s Day as a national holiday. In 1909 she held a memorial service for her deceased mom in West Virginia and that is recognized as the first, modern day Mother’s Day celebration. She began a campaign to have Mother's Day recognized as a holiday in the US in 1905 when her mother died. But it wasn't until 1914, after a good bit of discussion, that Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation designating the second Sunday in May as a national holiday to honor mothers. By then, the carnation had become the flower of choice to give mother's on their day. However, to the dismay of Jarvis, by the early 1920’s Hallmark Cards and other companies began selling Mother’s Day cards and Ms. Jarvis became resentful of the commercialization of the holiday. She believed that the companies had misinterpreted and exploited the idea of Mother’s Day making it a day of profit rather than a day to honor moms. As a result she began to organize boycotts of Mother’s Day and threatened to issue lawsuits against companies involved. So in 1925 she drew a line in the sand and made her stand. I imagine her children sat around the lunch table after church on those 2nd Sundays in May, retelling the story of mama’s escapades and exploits—especially about the day she was arrested! Don't you know that that would have been a fun Mother’s Day luncheon to have attended! I wonder what she would think about the commercialization of Christmas?
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