The History of Mother's Day

This is a remake of our original Mother's Day video which had no background music and very poor audio. We also swapped out most of the pictures. Make sure to add this to your holiday playlists!

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For a wonderful Common Core aligned lesson concerning this content, click here

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Transcript:

On the second Sunday in May, we honor our mothers on Mother’s Day. Where did this tradition come from? How long has it been around?

In 1908, Anna Jarvis decided to hold a memorial for her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis. Anna’s mother had been a peace activist during the Civil War and had cared for the wounded on both sides of the fighting. West Virginia, Jarvis’ home state, became the first state to recognize a day to honor mothers in 1910. In just a few years, several more states had added Mother’s Day to their list of holidays.

In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation creating Mother’s Day as a national holiday. It would be celebrated on the second Sunday of May each year. The holiday caught on quickly, and in no time at all, it was being celebrated nationwide. By the 1920s, Mother’s Day had taken on a similar appearance to the holiday we know today, with manufactured greeting cards and gifts of flowers or candy.

Today, more greeting cards are sold for Mother’s Day than any other holiday. More than 150 million Mother’s Day cards are purchased annually in the United States, totaling more than $650 million a year! Additionally, more than $2 billion worth of flowers are purchased in the US. The flower that has become most associated with Mother’s Day is the carnation. White carnations represent a mother who has passed on, while red carnations represent mothers who are still alive. Roses, daffodils, and tulips are also popular.

Church attendance has also become a major part of the Mother’s Day tradition. Church attendance on Mother’s Day ranks third, behind only Christmas and Easter services. Taking mom out to dinner is another popular Mother’s Day activity. Mother’s Day is the single most popular day of the year for families to go out to eat. The average American spends about $120 a year on Mother’s Day. Collectively, Americans spend more than $14 billion honoring their mothers.

More than eighty nations currently recognize Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in May. However, this is certainly not the only day in which mothers are honored. Nineteen nations celebrate Mother’s Day on March 21st. In sixteen other nations, the holiday is on March 8th (this day is also known as International Women’s Day). Other countries have their own days. For example, in Thailand, Mother’s Day is August 12th, and in Argentina, the holiday is the third Sunday in October. In fact, during every month of the year (except September), Mother’s Day is being celebrated somewhere in the world.