Happy Mother’s Day
Moms didn’t come up with Mother’s Day as an easy way to get pancakes in bed. And despite how it seems, card companies didn’t invent it as a way to make a few (billion) bucks.
There’s more to the history of Mother’s Day than meets the eye. In addition to the history of the holiday, there’s a whole lot of controversy. There are debates about who came up with the holiday first and lawsuits about who can use the name “Mother’s Day.” One of the founders tried to get the holiday scratched from the books, even after fighting to get it recognized as a national day. Besides all that, there’s the question of where that pesky apostrophe goes.
(Don’t worry: we’ve got you covered on that one. The correct placement of the apostrophe is this: Mother’s Day.)
Here are the secrets of Mother’s Day and its history. And, for good measure, a few ideas on how to celebrate your own mom on the second Sunday of May (depending where you are in the world).
The Birth of Mother’s Day
The origin of Mother’s Day as we know it took place in the early 1900s. A woman named Anna Jarvis started a campaign for an official holiday honoring mothers in 1905, the year her own mother died. The first larger-scale celebration of the holiday was in 1908, when Jarvis held a public memorial for her mother in her hometown of Grafton, West Virginia.
Over the next few years, Jarvis pushed to have the holiday officially recognized, and it was celebrated increasingly in more and more states around the U.S. Finally, in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation making Mother’s Day an official holiday, to take place the second Sunday of May.
Anna Jarvis put Mother’s Day on the calendar as a day dedicated to expressing love and gratitude to mothers, acknowledging the sacrifices women make for their children. That’s why she was determined to keep “Mother’s” a singular possessive, as marked by the apostrophe before “s.” Each family should celebrate its own mother, so that individual women across the country could feel the love, even in the midst of a broad celebration of motherhood.
How to Celebrate Mother’s Day Today
For most modern moms, going out to brunch or getting a Hallmark card and a fat bunch of flowers will do the trick. Sure, Anna Jarvis will roll her eyes, but if Mom’s grateful, where’s the real harm?
If you want to go the Anna Jarvis route, make your own card or write a letter to show your love to your mommy dearest. Need inspiration? Use a phrase involving the word “mother” or “mom” or a nice mom-centric quotation. Here’s a good one:
There is no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one. – Jill Churchill
For some more free alternatives, you can pick up the phone (fun fact: Mother’s Day marks the highest phone traffic of the year in the United States), take Mom for a walk (if you live nearby), or send over something sentimental.
Most importantly, show your mom that she (and Grammarly) taught you well by putting the apostrophe in the right place when you write “Happy Mother’s Day.”
Here is a link to some gift ideas for your Mom/Mum/Mother/Moeder/Ma
Excerpts from Grammarly Blog