Mother's Day Countdown

How it began

Anna Jarvis held the first Mother's Day service in Grafton, West Virginia, in 1908 to honor her own mother, and campaigned until President Wilson made it a national observance in 1914.

A founder's regret

Jarvis later spent decades fighting the holiday's commercialization, she wanted handwritten letters, not printed cards. The flowers won, but the sentiment endures.

The founder who tried to cancel it

Anna Jarvis created Mother's Day in 1908 to honor her own mother, and President Wilson made it national in 1914. Then florists and card companies moved in — and Jarvis spent the rest of her life, and most of her inheritance, campaigning to abolish the holiday she'd founded, organizing boycotts and crashing conventions. She died in 1948, penniless, still fighting it.

Quick facts

• Observed on the second Sunday of May in the US
• First celebrated in Grafton, West Virginia, in 1908
• Became a national observance under President Wilson in 1914
• One of the busiest days of the year for restaurants
• Founder Anna Jarvis later fought to abolish the holiday

For mom

She said she doesn't want anything. She does not mean it.

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