Mothers Day honors mothers, motherhood, maternal bonds and the influence of mothers in society. In the United States, Mothers Day was first celebrated in 1908 in Grafton Va., when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother. Jarvis’ campaign to make Mothers Day a recognized holiday became successful in 1914; by the 1920’s, Anna Jarvis was disappointed by the commercialization of Mothers Day; she was against buying cards, because she felt that was a sign of being too lazy to write a personal letter. There were other observances honoring mothers in the 1870’s and 1880’s, but were only on a local level. In 1870 Julia Ward Howe attempted to establish “Mothers Day For Peace”, and there was a traditional festival of “Mothering Sunday”.
