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Mother's Day Architect Likely Would Think You Spoil Mom

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The Associated Press

Published: May 11, 2008

GRAFTON, W.Va. - On this 100th anniversary of Mother's Day, the woman credited with creating one of the world's most celebrated holidays probably wouldn't be pleased with all the flowers, candy or gifts.
Anna Jarvis would want us to give mothers a white carnation - she felt it signified the purity of a mother's love.

Jarvis, who never married and never had children, got the Mother's Day idea after her mother said it would be nice if someone created a memorial to mothers.

Three years after her mother died in 1905, Jarvis organized the first official Mother's Day service at a church where her mother had spent more than 20 years teaching Sunday school.

Today, the former Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church is the official shrine to mothers around the world. Today, the shrine will celebrate the 100th anniversary, giving each mother attending a special service a white carnation.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 83 million mothers in the United States. More mothers now work out of the home and the number of single-mother households has tripled to more than 10 million since 1970.

What has led to Mother's Day being celebrated on the second Sunday in May in 52 countries is "everyone has a mother," said Sally Thayer, a trustee of the International Mother's Day Shrine in Grafton. "It's a wonderful thing to celebrate."

"I would love to be like Mrs. Jarvis," said Olive Dadisman, who operates the Anna Jarvis Birthplace Museum in nearby Webster.

"She was a soft-spoken, gentle woman, but she could convince the devil to give up his pitchfork."

West Virginia became the first state to recognize Mother's Day in 1910. President Woodrow Wilson approved a resolution in 1914 marking the second Sunday in May a nationwide observance.

"Mother's Day was meant to be - and still is - a celebration of a 19th-century ideal of motherhood, when mothers were supposed to dedicate themselves completely to nurturing their children and making a cozy, safe home," said Laura Prieto, an associate professor of history and women's studies at Simmons College in Boston.

Yet Jarvis became increasingly disturbed as the celebration turned into an excuse to sell greeting cards, candy, flowers and other items.

In the end, Mason said Jarvis, who died in 1948, was bitter about what the observance had become and "wished she would have never started the day because it became so out of control."

"But when you look at Mother's Day as being her baby of sorts, you can understand her protectiveness of it."

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