The United States celebrates Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May. In the 1880s and 1890s there were several attempts to establish a Mother's Day, but they didn't succeed beyond the local level.[48] The holiday was created by Anna Jarvis in Grafton, West Virginia, in 1908 as a day to honor one's mother.[4] Jarvis wanted to accomplish her mother's dream of making a celebration for all mothers, although the idea didn't take off until she enlisted the services of wealthy Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker.[49] She kept promoting the holiday until President Woodrow Wilson made it an official national holiday in 1914.[48] The holiday eventually became so highly commercialized that many, including its founder, Anna Jarvis, considered it a "Hallmark Holiday", i.e. one with an overwhelming commercial purpose. Jarvis eventually ended up opposing the holiday she had helped to create.[4][50] She died in 1948, regretting what had become of her holiday.[49] In the United States, Mother's Day remains one of the biggest days for sales of flowers, greeting cards, and the like; it is also the biggest holiday for long-distance telephone calls.[51]
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Posted Tuesday, May 04 2010 12:14 PM
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