Mother's Day Here, There and Everywhere

Ah, Mother's Day.

According to Wikipedia the modern American version of Mother's Day came about, at least officially, in 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation which designated the second Sunday in May an official U.S. holiday honoring mothers.

Three years later, in order to make sure their sons would appreciate the moment, he declared war and sent many of them off to fight in European trenches. While in France, American troops mailed so many letters home just prior to Mother's Day it swamped the French mail system. In response, those clever Frogs invented the post card which didn't take up as much room in canvass bags, or were nearly as heavy as a letter.

Wilson's act was actually the culmination of nine years of activism by Anna Jarvis, the daughter of Ann Reeves Jarvis who had died in 1905. Ann Reeves Jarvis was what right wing yahoos used to call a peacenik. During a time when there was very little peace in the land she was steadfastly against armed conflict and spent her time in the 1860's caring for both Union and Confederate soldiers wounded in the civil war. She also established Mother's work clubs in order to address public health issues. At the time this included teaching people stuff like don't piss in the creek your get your drinking water from.

Wikipedia notes that within six years, or so of the establishment of the holiday Anna Jarvis became completely disillusioned because Hallmark Cards and other corporations were exploiting the day for profit. By 1923 she was protesting at a convention of candy makers. In 1925 an organization called, American War Mothers began selling carnations on Mother's Day in order to raise money for their group. This enraged Jarvis so much she showed up at one of their meetings and had to be carted away after being charged with disturbing the peace.

Of course other nations have had different ideas about what Mother's Day should be. In France and Germany, both of which had suffered serious declines in population thanks to low birth rates and WWI, for a time the holiday honors were reserved only to those women who had hordes of children.

In the 1920s and later in the 1930s the Germans, being German, had a program of government subsidies to not only assist women with large numbers of kids, but to encourage others to do the same. Unfortunately if a child had a mental, or physical handicap dear Mom was out of the program and her tots were shipped off to a dark and terrible place.

By 1938 if a woman in der vaterland had at least four children she was awarded a medal named, the Mutterkreuz--the Mother's Cross. Hey, it takes a lot of young men to invade western Europe and Russia.

Sometimes the origins are more religious. In the UK on the fourth Sunday in Lent there was what they called, Mothering Day. For centuries it didn't have anything to do with your mother, but was a Sunday during which you visited your mother church, the one you were christened in. It melded into Mother's day after the Brits saw what an ado American troops made about the holiday during WWII. In the early 1950's after the Yank presence was gone UK merchants realized the gold mine the holiday could become and began advertising campaigns to promote it. To this day it is still observed on the fourth Sunday in Lent, although the whole mother church thing seems to have diminished somewhat.

Many Latin countries have sort of done the same thing. They merged Mother's Day into holidays which originally celebrated the Virgin Mary becoming pregnant with Jesus.

Others, like Bolivia celebrate it because during their war for independence the Spanish massacred all the women fighting against them at the battle of Cochabamba. Some choose to not mention mothers at all, but prefer to celebrate International Women's Day on February 28th--which had it's beginnings in the early socialist movement.

Yes, there are different dates, different reasons and histories. However the results are the same. Moms everywhere get a day and much to the chagrin of Anna Jarvis, florists, candy makers, the phone companies, and restaurant owners rake in huge bucks.

Such is the nature of the world we live in and capitalism. No matter what the theology, or tradition, someone cashes in.



5-12-19