It's hard not to think of a time when Mother's Day wasn't about flowers, cards and dinners out, but its history is perhaps not as old as people might think. It's also rife with controversy, conflict, and commercialism!
Since the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans, tribute has regularly been paid to mums in one way or another around the world, but it's up for debate as to the origins of the modern-day incarnation and who can make the most claim to it.
American Anna Jarvis declared herself “mother of Mother's Day” in 1908 after organising a celebration following the death of her own mum.
A divisive figure who was passionately against the crass commercialisation of the day, Anna wound up suing virtually everybody for using the term “Mother's Day”. She designated those trying to "steal" they day, even for charitable causes, as “Christian pirates”.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt too, came under fire in 1934 when he wanted to design a stamp to commemorate mum's, using one of the most famous images of a one, Whistler's Mother. Jarvis declared it “ugly”, and that was the end of that.
Sadly, while her efforts were obviously well-intentioned, Anna Jarvis died alone and penniless in an asylum in 1948. The Canberra Times was one of the few Australian papers to acknowledge her passing.
Others point to the day's creator being suffragette Julia Ward Howe, who penned “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”. It's suggested she came up with the idea of a celebration of mothers in 1872, as part of an anti-war movement, specifically in relation to the Civil War.
Then there's a former football coach, Frank Hering in 1904; he was accused of Anna Jarvis of trying to “kidnap” the concept after urging for a national day to honour mothers.
Either way, it was 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson officially declared it a day for children to celebrate their mothers - it then spread further afield the way American “traditions” do.
Anna Jarvis initially suggested Mother's Day to be held in June. Although there are claims that Australia first celebrated it in 1924, it was reported the first occasion took place in 1910 in Sydney in June. Organised by the Young Men's Christian Association (or, YMCA),it was a small Sunday afternoon gathering, of, well, just men.
Apparently there were other church services though, and the Sydney Morning Herald offered the following encouragement:“sons and daughters are asked to show that they love their mother, if living, and honour her memory, if dead, by the wearing of a white carnation specially chosen as the emblem denoting purity, faithfulness, chastity, charity, and love, all of these qualities being found in a true mother” – not much to live up to there!
The first public commemoration taking place on the second Sunday in May was in Melbourne in 1914, when, uh, 600 men - including PM Alfred Deakin - assembled at the City Auditorium in Collins Street to hear an address by the Reverend William Poole of the United States YMCA. Clearly, very motherly.
By 1918, it was as widespread here as elsewhere, the white flower the enduring symbol of the love of a child toward their mother.
There are some sources that suggest it was the idea of “gift-giving” that began in Australia in 1924. At that time, Sydney woman Janet Heyden campaigned for donations of gifts for lonely, forgotten and aged mothers at Newington State Hospital.
Of course, these numbers were prevalent because so many had lost sons and husbands through WWI, and a whole generation who would never be wives or mothers as a result.
Now of course, despite all that Anna Jarvis railed against, Mum's Day is a multi-billion dollar industry: in the US in 2017, it was reported that $23bill was spent on it, and a similar situation normally holds sway in Australia.
It's the third most popular day for greeting cards behind Christmas and Valentines Day, and of course, mum always gets more gifts than Dad on his similarly set-aside day (basically manufactured to balance Mother's Day).
Apparently it's also, usually, the most popular day of the entire year to dine out – another thing we can currently hold against COVID!
Nonetheless, for the all the mothers, and to the memories of all the mothers, on this special day!
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