Mother's Day is a holiday celebrated annually as a tribute to all mothers and motherhood. It is celebrated on various dates in many parts of the world. Although the origins of the holiday date back to the times of the ancient Greeks and Romans, the modern form of the celebration of Mother's Day in the United States began in the early 20th century.
Modern history
It was first celebrated in 1908 in Grafton, West Virginia, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother Ann Reeves Jarvis who, in turn, many years earlier had founded Mothers' Day Work Clubs in five cities. Anna Jarvis began a campaign to make the Mother's Day a national holiday and she succeeded in 1914 when the U.S. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May a Mother's Day.
Mother's Day around the world
Nowadays Mother's Day (or a similar event) is celebrated in more than 150 countries around the world, although at different dates. Many countries, including the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan and many European countries, celebrate Mother's Day on second Sunday of May. On the other hand, in many African countries it is celebrated on 21 March. To summarize, most of the Mother's Day dates around the world fall in May or in March.
Interesting facts about Mother's Day
- Anna Jarvis (woman who founded Mother's Day) believed it became too commercialized by 1920s and fought to have it abolished [1].
- In the USA, Mother's Day is one of the biggest holidays for phone calls, and Father's Day is the busiest day for collect (reverse charge) calls [2].
- Typically, 30% less is spend on Father's Day gifts than on Mother's Day gifts [3].
- Mother's Day is the most popular day of the year to dine out in the United States with almost 40% of consumers doing so [4]. Accordingly, it is also the busiest day of the year for KFC [5].
- Mother of John and Clarence Anglin, 2 of the 3 men who ever escaped from Alcatraz, received flowers anonymously every Mother's Day until her death in 1978. The interesting thing is her sons were officially reported to have drowned in San Francisco Bay while escaping in 1962 [6].
References
- [1] Jonathan Mulinix, The Founder of Mother's Day Later Fought to Have It Abolished.
- [2] Pallavi Gogoi, Father's Unspectacular Day, Bloomberg.
- [3] Phil Izzo, Number of the Week: Spending Less on Father’s Day, The Wall Street Journal.
- [4] Mother's Day Dining Fact Sheet.
- [5] Chris Fuhrmeister, KFC Is the Mother's Day Destination.
- [6] June 1962 Alcatraz escape, Wikipedia.