The woman behind Mother's Day

The activist Anna Jarvis.

Mother's Day in the United States will be celebrated this Sunday, the 109th official year of the special date created in 1908 by one Anna Jarvis (1864-1948).

Interesting factoid: Jarvis later would denounce the holiday’s commercialization and spent the latter part of her life trying to remove it from the calendar.

So, who was Anna Jarvis? According to History.com, the West Virginia woman helped start “Mothers’ Day Work Clubs" to teach local women how to properly care for their children. 

The clubs later became a unifying force in a region of the country still divided over the Civil War. In 1868, Jarvis organized “Mothers’ Friendship Day,” at which mothers gathered with former Union and Confederate soldiers to promote reconciliation.

History.com has lots of interesting information on the creation and evolution of Mother's Day. Just click here to read it.

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