Mother’s Day
9 May 2027
Mother’s Day is the second Sunday in May. In 2027 that is 9 May, which is also the date on which Woodrow Wilson issued the first national proclamation for the day in 1914. It is an observance rather than a federal holiday: no federal office, bank or post office closes for it.
More than one woman is behind it, and the day they wanted is not quite the day that exists. Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the words of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, issued an “Appeal to Womanhood throughout the World” in 1870, calling on mothers to work against war. That appeal was behind observances held in Boston from 1872, and it was about peace, not about flowers.
The modern holiday belongs to Anna Jarvis. Her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, had organised Mothers’ Day Work Clubs in West Virginia before the Civil War to improve sanitation and reduce infant deaths, and had nursed soldiers from both sides during it. She died on 9 May 1905. Anna Jarvis began campaigning for a day in her honour, and the first service was held on 10 May 1908 at St Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, where 500 white carnations, her mother’s favourite flower, were handed out. West Virginia recognised the day in 1910 and other states followed.
On 8 May 1914 Congress passed a joint resolution naming the second Sunday in May. Wilson issued his proclamation the next day, asking Americans to display the flag as a public expression of love and reverence for the mothers of the country.
Jarvis spent the rest of her life fighting what the day became. She disliked bought cards, calling one a poor excuse for the letter you are too lazy to write, organised boycotts of florists and confectioners, and was arrested in 1925 at a charity sale of carnations, for disturbing the peace. She died in 1948.
Sources
- Library of Congress, “Today in History — May 9”
- Library of Congress, “Mother’s Day: Topics in Chronicling America”
- Timeanddate.com, “Holidays and Observances in the United States in 2027”
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