Bittersweet beginnings of Mother's Day: Anna Jarvis invented
Mother's Day in 1908. She copyrighted the name, petitioned
Congress and fought hard to get a national holiday so that all
mother's could get recognition, as a tribute to who own mother,
who had just died.
After about 9 years of spreading it far and wide across the
United States, getting it official in 1914 when Woodrow Wilson
signed it into Law, and afterwards for the rest of her life, she
deeply regretted it because it became a yearly commercial event
and had become the cause of some fighting and competition in
families, as early newspaper reports show. She felt to blame.
The Hallmark company (known as Hall Brothers at the time),
founded in 1910, who was one of the first companies to recognize
the power of licensing (they signed a license with Walt Disney
in 1922 for example, when Walt Disney Company was rather young),
was instrumental in the creation of the modern day form of
Mother's Day.
These are historical events and have little resemblance to the
sentiment expressed on Mother's Day. I just found them
interesting and wanted to share. All that being said,
Happy Mother's Day to Mom and all Mothers, Grandmothers, Great
Grandmothers, Aunts, Sisters and Women - and to the Men who play
the Role of Mother. (Father's Day doesn't have the same ''umph''
to match their contributions).
You deserve it and despite the shaky and bittersweet beginnings
of Mother's Day it nevertheless gives a way for kids everywhere
to stop and say, ''Yes, Mom, I do care. Thanks.''
