Mother’s Day’s Dark History; You Definitely Don’t Know This!

Like every year, Mother’s Day 2020 is occurring on Sunday, May 10. Flowers, gifts, love, joy and brunches are what we all know about Mother’s Day. However, the history of this day is quite dark. It is filled with conflicts, controversy, and dissension. Here are some mysterious facts you don’t know.

Where It All Started?

Anna Reeves Jarvis is the name that is credited for laying the foundation of Mother’s Day in the United States. It all happened in the mid-19th century. The lady organized the event to remember the fallen soldiers and promote peace during the American Civil War era. Many anti-war activists, along with Anna Reeves, promoted global peace.

Later on, after her death in 1905, her daughter Anna Jarvis carried on the tradition, but the original concept was commercialized differently. It was picked up by the companies and merchants shifting the idea to cards and florals tributes.

The Founder Hated the Fundraisers

Since the beginning of Mother’s Day, some groups started to raise funds for various charitable causes – Anna didn’t love that. In fact, she named them “Christian Pirates”.

Today, we would favour that idea as it was a good way to help the war veterans, but according to her, these charity raising organizations would use the day just for making money.

The Mother of Mother’s Day Never Profited From the Day

With Jarvis fighting against for the day, she organized protests and launched lawsuits. It was a life-long battle for Anna Jarvis’s Mother’s Day to get it commercialized.

Jarvis died penniless at the age of 84. Many appeared as a minor celebrity taking credit of the day, but she never profited from Mother’s Day.

The Legal Battles

For Jarvis, Mother’s day was everything. She considered the day as her intellectual. She stood up in court in defense. According to a 1944 Newsweek article, she had about 33 pending Mother’s Day lawsuits.

Commercialization of Mother’s Day

After years of struggle, Jarvis finally decries Mother’s Day as a day of personal celebration between mothers and children. Jarvis worked with the floral industry to raise the Mother’s Day profile and convinced people to buy candies, gifts, and cards.

Later on, she disowned the holiday all together as she thought that the day had become a money-making event to some groups, especially the charitable organizations.