How did Mothers Day originate?
Traditionally, Mother’s Day is the 2nd Sunday in May in the United States. Created by Anna Jarvis in Grafton, West Virginia, 1908 was the first time for Mother’s Day to be adopted on the national level. With the help of Philadelphia wealthy merchant, John Wanamaker, Jarvis was able to promote the holiday until Woodrow Willson made it an official holiday in 1914.
Although it has been commercialized and turned into a "Hallmark holiday", Mother’s Day has become one of the biggest days for the sale of flowers, greeting cards, and long-distance telephone calls.
Jarvis, who died in 1948, was unhappy as to what her holiday, Mother’s Day, had turned into.
Many other countries also celebrate the holiday on this date, while some mark the observance at other times of the year. Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia, whose mother had organized women’s groups to promote friendship and health, originated Mother’s Day; on May 12, 1907, she held a memorial service at her late mother’s church in Grafton, West Virginia. Within five years virtually every state was observing the day, and in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson made it a national holiday.
