Houston's Weekend Planning Guide

     Did you know the woman responsible for creating Mother's Day resented how it became commercialized?
      It all started in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother at St Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia.
     St Andrew's Methodist Church now holds the International Mother's Day Shrine. It was Jarvis' campaign to make Mother's Day a recognized holiday in the United States which began in 1905, the year her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, died.
     Ann Jarvis was a peace activist who cared for wounded soldiers on both sides of the American Civil War, and created Mother's Day Work Clubs to address public health issues.
     Anna Jarvis wanted to honor her mother by continuing the work she started and to set aside a day to honor all mothers because she believed a mother is "the person who has done more for you than anyone in the world".

It has been reported, although Jarvis was successful in founding Mother's Day, she eventually became resentful of the commercialization of the holiday.
     It was Hallmark Cards and other companies that started selling Mother's Day cards. Jarvis believed that the companies had misinterpreted and exploited the idea of Mother's Day, and that the emphasis of the holiday was on sentiment.
     As a result, she organized boycotts of Mother's Day, and threatened to issue lawsuits against the companies involved. Jarvis argued that people should appreciate and honor their mothers through handwritten letters expressing their love and gratitude, instead of buying gifts and pre-made cards.
     Jarvis protested at a candy makers' convention in Philadelphia in 1923, and at a meeting of American War Mothers in 1925. 
     By this time, carnations had become associated with Mother's Day, and the selling of carnations by the American War Mothers to raise money angered Jarvis, who was arrested for disturbing the peace.