According to this Slate column by Ruth Rosen, Mothers Day was instituted in the mid-1800’s by Anna Jarvis and Julia Ward Howe (who wrote the “Battle Hymn of the Republic”) as a day for mothers to advocate much-needed social reforms:
For three decades, Americans celebrated Mother’s Days for Peace on June 2. Women political activists of this era fought to end lynching and organized to end child labor, trafficking of women, and consumer fraud. In their view, their moral superiority was grounded in the fact of their motherhood.
When Anna Jarvis died in 1905, her daughter, also named Anna, vowed to honor her mother’s political activism by creating a national Mother’s Day. The gift card and flower industries also lobbied hard. As an industry publication, the Florists’ Review, put it, “This was a holiday that could be exploited.” In 1914, Congress responded and proclaimed the second Sunday in May to be Mother’s Day.
Companies seized on the holiday by setting out to teach Americans how to honor their mothers by buying them flowers, candy, or cards. This outraged Anna Jarvis the daughter. When florists sold carnations for the then-exorbitant price of $1 a piece, she began a campaign against “those who would undermine Mother’s Day with their greed.” But she was hardly a match for the flower and card companies. Soon, the Florists’ Review announced, with a certain triumphant tone, that it was “Miss Jarvis who was completely squelched.” And they were right.
We need a return to the roots of Mother’s Day. If you’re a mother (and I believe all women naturally function in some kind of mothering role, whether their children legally belong to them or not), let this Mothers Day remind you of your role as a protector for those who cannot protect themselves.
You’re imitating Jesus in his desire to be a protective mother hen: “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings!” (Matthew 23:37)