Why Do We Celebrate Mother’s Day on the Second Sunday in May?

From teaching sanitation to fighting for world peace. Mother's Day has a bit of a history.

Moms are pretty cool.

They carry babies for 9 months and push them out of their vaginas, risking vaganuses, or get their bellies sliced open, all to create new life.

Historically they were overlooked and downtrodden. Despite the aloof unappreciative nature of men, mother’s always seem to hold it down. They perform miracles to make sure the family grows and prospers.

This isn’t to downplay fathers at all, that article will come in 5 weeks. 

It’s weird I needed to write that sentence, but you literally do in this era over cornball mcgoo’s. 

Still outside the obvious (we’re terrible at showing love to people that matter to us), why is Mother’s day a holiday on the calendars?

What is the point of it?

Why is it the second Sunday in May?

Let’s recap some top level Googling together. 

Traditionally there are many holidays for mothers across history

The ancient Greeks used to honour Rhea the “Mother of Gods”. 

Rhea is the goddess of nature and fertility. Recognizing that giving birth and creating life was pretty important for survival, they had an annual springtime festival to honour Rhea and fertility. I couldn’t find out how they partied back then but Rhea got a lot of temples in her honour.

Inevitably the idea of Rhea spread. The Romans adopted her as Cybele and then created their own festival, Hilaria, around the Spring equinox. I couldn’t find out much on what they did, but at some point priests allegedly did the Catholic whip themselves thing.

Old timey holidays are wild. 

Inevitably even the church got into the mother-love, hijacking Mother celebrating and morphing it into mother church love. Apparently “Mother church” represents the church as a whole in its nourishing capacity or the main church of a denomination. Either way inevitably this blended church mother and human mother into unified celebrations, taking place the 4th Sunday in Lent.

History had their version of Mother’s Day, but what about ours?

It all starts with sanitation and world peace

Ann Reeves Jarvis was a West Virginian lady who helped start the “Mother’s Day Work Clubs”.

This was not to celebrate the moms. It was more, infant mortality rates were dumb high in the 19th century, so someone needed to teach poor moms sanitation and better practices. 

These “Mother’s Day Clubs” became a big deal post the American Civil war. The moms became a force of peace trying to promote some reconciliation between the former Union and Confederate soldiers.

Told you it started with sanitation and world peace.

This lady, Julia Ward Howe, even tried to make “Mother’s Peace Day” a thing for June 2nd. 

Moms have been a powerful force of civic change for a long time. These early Mother’s Day clubs were just disgruntled moms looking to galvanize the world for change. The way history is painted I don’t think we realize how badass women were in the 1800s.

Either way, Ann Reeves Jarvis gave birth to Anna Jarvis at some point, and then died in 1905. 

The American Mother’s Day is about church and humble mom praise

Anna Jarvis, founder of our Mother’s Day, was big sad.

In 1907, she partnered with a Philadelphia store owner and threw a Mother’s Day jam at a Methodist church. The store owner simultaneously pulled thousands on a Mother’s Day event at one of his stores. There’s an irony to this holiday starting with corporate backing.

From what I can tell, the holiday was about praising your mom for being awesome and going to church.

Since her Mother died on May 9th, the idea was to keep it around that time of year. 

But it’s also Christian in nature, so it was on a Sunday for church calendar purposes. 

Anna Jarvis then went hard lobbying her cause. She hit up every paper she could. She mailed the world and pressured so hard that she inevitably won. Though, before she did, a 1908 congress rejected the idea because they’d “Also have to proclaim a mother-in-law’s Day”.

Classic old white man political humour.

It’s worth noting a huge part of her effort was that most holidays celebrated men and she genuinely felt women needed a praise day. 

Anna did not give up and many states were on board by 1911. Finally Woodrow Wilson signed Mother’s Day into law in 1914.  Rappers can learn from this, we’re lazy compared to Anna Jarvis.

The problem was instead of a day celebrating your mom with love, it turned real capitalist real fast.

Despite a corporate backing it turns out corporations ruined Mother’s Day

The guy selling flowers next to my mom’s place today made 15$ off of me today.

Pretty much off jump people smelled the dollars. There were hustlers selling flowers. People started creating Mother’s Day cards. All of a sudden the nice holiday about motherhood had been turned into something corporate and evil.

It’s wild because we all say the same thing about our holidays today. 

This was the criticism Anna Jarvis had in the 1920s. 

People need to get off their “our culture is enlightened” high horses and learn some history.

Anna was really about it though. She made sure the holiday is “Mother’s Day” and not “Mothers Day’. This day is meant for me to honour the woman who birthed me, not for me to care about your mom. 

The idea was exploited and misrepresented and unfortunately joined the list of holidays whose origin no one cares about. 

Let’s be real though, the purpose is in the name. 

Dishing out some cash for your mom and spending an evening with her is in the spirit of Mother’s Day. 

Either way the word spread and it became a global phenomenon.

Anna Jarvis created a monster and failed to defeat it once it grew outside her desires.

The morale of the story is don’t start a holiday with a capitalist and be mad it goes capitalist.

Live Long and Prosper Everyone.