Anna Jarvis

Any discussion or debate on Mother's Day is incomplete without mentioning the person who loved her mother very much - Anna Jarvis. This wonderful day, dedicated to mothers, is the fruit of her love and respect for her own mother. Known as the 'Mother of Mother's Day', Anna Jarvis through put her feet down with her campaigns for a day dedicated to mothers. Inspired by her mother's words, Anna Jarvis decided to honor a day to inspire the world to give some respect for the most wonderful creation of god - mothers. It is believed that she quarreled with her mother for some reason and sadly, lost her before they could reconcile. Struck with grief, guilty feeling and frothing love, she wanted to repay for this, which eventually led to intense effort to materialize her dream. Read about Anna Jarvis and her life from the following brief biography.

Famous Mother
Anna Jarvis was born on May 1, 1864 in Webster, West Virginia. She was born to Ann Marie and Granville Jarvis as their ninth child. She had ten siblings. Anna's, family moved to Grafton shortly after her birth. Later, she enrolled in 'Augusta Female Academy in Staunton' in Virginia, which is now known as Mary Baldwin College. Anna chose teaching as her career and worked in a school for seven years.

Anna was only twelve when she heard that golden words from her mother, while concluding a lesson regarding "Mothers of the Bible", which seeded the idea of a Mother's Day'. These were those magical words - "I hope that someone, sometime will found a memorial mother's day commemorating her for the matchless service she renders to humanity in every field of life. She is entitled to it." The year 1905 brought the biggest unfortunate event in Anna's life when she lost her mother forever. She was further left aghast by the fact that the adult children in US showed negligence towards their mother. This made her desperate and in 1907, she started hosting strong campaigns for dedicating a day for all mothers, who, with all their will and energy, lived for their children and received back nothing but negligence.

She started her effort to give shape to her own dream in 1907, on the second death anniversary of her mother. As an initial step, she penned hundreds of letters depicting the need for a national Mother's Day. Being a fluent speaker, it was not a difficult task for Anna to use every platform to promote her cause and convince people. Though she was reverted back with cold responses initially, things started changing when she received the support of great merchant and philanthropist John Wanamaker. Thus, in 1909, her effort bore fruits as forty-five states in America decided to observe Mother's Day and the movement gained a fresh impetus with their support. Anna Jarvis began the tradition of wearing white and red carnations, which was her mother's favorite and gradually, that become a part of the celebration. White carnations are used to respect a deceased mother whereas red carnations indicate respect for a living mom. White carnation was her most favorite because it represented the purity of a mother's heart. The Mother's Day, which was first celebrated over America, then gradually gathered popularity and by 1914, it got globally popularized as President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed officially that a Mother's Day would be on the second Sunday of May every year and it would be a national holiday. Though this announcement made her heart jump with joy, later, she became extremely sad due to the over commercialization of the day. She was rather concerned with reform than revenue. This wonderful and strong lady, who created history, died on 1948 November 24, at the age of 84.