Mother's day
With mother's day quickly approaching, I couldn't wait to write this post. I tell people every year about how mother's day started in West Virginia (spoiler alert: father's day did too).
It started in Grafton, WV by a woman named Anna Jarvis. Anna wanted a day to commemorate everything her mother (also named Anna) had done. Her mother was a communityactivist and led groups to combat childhood disease.
In 1908, which was 3 years after her mother passed (1905), Anna held a church service at St. Andrew's Methodist Episcopal church,
after getting financial assistance from a Philidelphia department store owner named John Wanamaker. That same Sunday, a mother's day service was held in Philidelphia at one of Wanamaker's stores.
After this, she began her campaign of letter writing to politicians and news papers to try to make mother's day a national holiday.
In 1914, president Woodrow Wilson finally signed a measure to establish mother's day as the second Sunday in May
Jarvis grew to hate the day she created because of the commercialism. She even tried to get Mother's day taken off the calendar.
Of course, there are other stories about the origins of mother's day, but thats the internet for ya. I try my best not to spread anymore misinformation
August, 2023- I ended up visiting Anna Jarvis's home
Sources-
Did you know that mother's day was created in west virginia?, 2018, Wvtourism.com
Anna Marie Reeves Jarvis, wikipedia.org
Anna Jarvis turns mother's day into a national holiday, 2023, history.com
S. Pruit, May 10th, 2013, Why the founder of mother's day turned against it, history.com
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