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Mother's Day Founder Despised Why She Authored This Holiday, Thanks To Capitalists

Erika Ivene Verder Columna
First Posted: May 09, 2016 04:38 AM EDT

Years after Anna Jarvis, founder of Mother's Day in the US, created the special holiday in 1908, she went mad on why she actually did.

It's all because after wanting to just honor her mom and inspire other children to do the same, entrepreneurs and business people capitalized on this special day. As a result, instead of just simply and sincerely remembering what their mothers do and did for them, Mother's Day is now a tradition of spending and expenses, just to "celebrate" their moms.

According to a news feature by NPR.org, the first Mother's Day was spent in May 1908, West Virginia. And to salute the woman behind the holiday, the Anna Jervis Museum director, Olive Ricketts had a discussion on how this started. Ricketts shared that Jarvis' mother commented that mothers needed at least a day of rest from all the motherhood tasks they do. As she recalls, "It really didn't mean that she wanted us to get gifts or to cook a dinner or be taken out to dinner. It just meant give us one day here to actually do absolutely nothing if we wanted to. And so she decided that this would be something that she could do to honor her mother by getting this day, but it would also be all mothers."

And that was why Jarvis initiated to author Mother's Day and also the reason that rooted her to despise why she did so, years after.

"First officially observed in 1908, it honored motherhood & family life at a time of rising feminist activism. An early supporter was John Wanamker, whose store stood opposite. Mother's Day was given federal recognition, 1914." These words can be seen displayed in a landmark in Philadelphia where Anna Jarvis was born and lived, says 6abc.

The initiative to honor mothers and women aound the world who work hard to keep their family without financial nor material pay, grew stronger in the times when feminist groups and struggles were arising.

However, capitalists always do their way to make profits in everything they see, and at this account, the innocent day for loving mothers. A few years after her creation, Anna Jarvis loathed how greeting card companies adopted her idea and started making people spend and buy things to celebrate this day.

This culture flourished to this day, where companies and businesses push to gain more profits during Mother's Day through guilting people that the more love they feel towards their mother, the more expensive their gifts and celebration should be. Thus, people should buy their specialized Mother's Day package, promo, item, or what have yous.

Anna Jarvis' mother would never approve of this insincere approach to thanking mothers. But, we salute our mothers, through however we could, anyways. In a lighter mood, see how Adam Conover of TruTV's "Adam Ruins Everything" explained Jarvis' dismay towards capitalists.

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