Landmarks in Time
This week marked a spectrum of historic milestones, including the 30th anniversary of Nelson Mandela becoming president in South Africa’s first open election. It’s also been 50 years since the impeachment investigation of Pres. Richard Nixon began, due to the Watergate scandal. In the arts, the week marked the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, and the premiere of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. And it was the 150th birthday of Howard Carter, discoverer of King Tut’s tomb.
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The Birth of Mother’s Day
Sunday is Mother’s Day, an observance founded more than a century ago. The day has become something of an industry since then, but that wasn’t the intent of Mother’s Day—which may be the only holiday in history founded by somebody who also tried to abolish it.
Civil War roots
Mother’s Day was founded by Anna Jarvis, but the idea came from her mother, Ann. Ann was active in women’s clubs, and in 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War, she organized a Mothers’ Friendship Day, to promote reconciliation between Union and Confederate veterans and their families. Ann died in 1905 but not before expressing her desire for a memorial day honoring all mothers. Anna promised to fulfill that dream, declaring at the funeral, “By the grace of God, you shall have that Mothers Day.”
Fruition
On May 10, 1908, Anna Jarvis held the first Mother’s Day celebration, conducting a memorial service to honor all mothers and sending 500 white carnations to her late mother’s church, a flower that would become the holiday’s symbol. Jarvis led a campaign to get the day recognized and within five years it was observed by virtually every state. On May 9, 1914, Pres. Woodrow Wilson designated the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.
Second thoughts
Businesses played a big role in the success of Mother’s Day, as florists, card companies, and other industries heavily promoted it. Jarvis founded the Mother’s Day International Association to preserve the holiday’s integrity in the face of what she saw as commercial exploitation. Near the end of her life, having failed to prevent such supposed corruptions of her holiday, Jarvis vigorously campaigned for the legal cancellation of Mother’s Day.
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