After her mother’s work with the Mother’s Day work clubs and in the years following her death, Jarvis organized official Mother’s Day events in her hometown of Grafton, West Virginia starting in 1908. These events grew in size and spread to other cities and towns quickly. Jarvis appointed herself the founder of Mother’s Day and was adamant about the fact that the annual celebration was not for mothers in general but was specific to honour one’s own mother. She endeavoured to ensure that the day’s title was spelled as the singular Mother’s Day, as opposed to Mothers’ Day.
In 1914, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson recognized the events officially, reserving the second Sunday in May as the official Mother’s Day.
In the following years, the commercialization of Mother’s Day as an official holiday was unstoppable. Jarvis fought against it with all that she could including boycotts and lawsuits, trying to keep the intimacy of her holiday, but with little success. She organized official support groups who would continually protest and even storm conventions but it made little difference. Jarvis spent all of her time and money protesting the financial capitalization of Mother’s Day until her death in 1948.
Today Mother’s day is celebrated around the globe and has become a huge industry. In the United States alone, people are expected to spend over $21 billion this Mother’s Day, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual Mother’s Day spending survey.
While this may be the case, it is important to remember that the true reason for celebration is to honour our mothers and all that they mean to us. As long as we celebrate the amazing thing that is motherhood, the true meaning of Mother’s Day will not be lost.
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