Was a Philadelphia Woman the ‘Mother’ of ‘Mother’s Day?’

Have you ever wondered how or why holidays were started? For example, was Valentine’s Day really created by the greeting card industry? Or when did we first celebrating Memorial Day?

Mother’s Day is this Sunday and since I’m stuck at home and getting a little bored of watching Netflix, I decided to do a little online research to find out the origins of the holiday that celebrates Moms.

According to time.com, President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation in 1914 designating the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day. Time.com says the proclamation described the holiday as "a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.”

But when you dig a little deeper, you’ll find that Mother’s Day, at least in America, may have come into being due to a woman in Philadelphia named Anna Jarvis.

According to mentalfloss.com, during the Civil War, Jarvis’s own mother, Ann Jarvis, “tried to orchestrate peace between Union and Confederate moms by forming a Mother's Friendship Day.”

Mentalfloss.com says that after the elder Jarvis passed away in 1905, her daughter Anna made it her mission to make sure moms everywhere were honored for all that they did.

Here’s the irony. according to Mentalfloss.com, years after Mother’s Day was officially declared a national holiday, Jarvis decided that the day had become too commercialized.

In fact, Mentalfloss.com says Jarvis went as far as ordering a Mother’s Day Salad at Wannamaker’s Department Store in Philly and proceeded to dump it on the floor when it was delivered to her table.

Maybe that should have become a new Mother’s Day tradition. Give your mom a salad and let her dump it on the ground.