Pioneers of Mother's Day: how an American who regretted her creation inspired a Briton to rescue medieval traditions

The celebration of the same love can occur in different times and places. For example, in Argentina Mother's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of October. Meanwhile, in countries like the United States, this celebration occurs on the second Sunday of May. It was in North America where such a festivity was created with the impetus of the activist Anna Jarvis. Her own mother fought for better social conditions and advocated for reconciliation after the Civil War. In her honor, the American made campaigns to achieve the national declaration of this holiday, which was produced in 1914. At that time, Jarvis felt satisfied, although that feeling would turn to the opposite extreme when she saw the commercialization of her proposal. Nevertheless, her idea inspired someone else across the Atlantic. It was the pharmacist Constance Adelaide Smith, who was in charge of reinforcing Christian values, echoing a medieval custom from her homeland. The activism that forged Anna Jarvis The high regard for the maternal figure dates back far. From the Egyptian goddess Isis—whose sacred role is seen in statues where she nurses her son Horus—to the homage to fertility and protection in ancient Greece through Rhea, mother of the gods Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. The modern celebration, in turn, originated at the beginning of the 20th century. Although Anna Jarvis became known as the creator of Mother's Day in the United States, the push came before her. More precisely, with whom she gave birth to it. Jarvis's mother was committed to peace. Among her numerous actions, the painful marks of the secession war (1861-1865) led her to prepare a reconciliation meeting with the title "Mother's Friendship Day." Although Jarvis was a young woman at that time—born in 1864—the climate already promoted her future interest in activism. It is worth noting that at that time Julia Ward Howe, another of the precursors of this tribute, was around. Three years after the fighting between the states of the North and South ended, a meeting was organized in West Virginia—which would end up being successful—between the former adversaries. In that same state, the long-awaited declaration was established a few years before President Woodrow Wilson made it national. However, there was not much time between the joy and regret of its creator, whose relative had already passed away by then. The celebration became something highly commercial. The increase in prices of white carnations—which Jarvis herself encouraged as a symbol since they were her mother's favorites—and the sale of printed greeting cards led them to make "noisy protests," which is why she was arrested. "A printed card means nothing, unless you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world," she stated. Her dissatisfaction reached the point of promoting a petition to abolish Mother's Day. But that initiative did not receive the same attention. In her statements, she contrasted the "beauty, nobility, and authenticity" of her original proposal with the "greed" that had "undermined" it. Finally, Anna Jarvis died in poverty in 1948 in an asylum. The newspaper, a medium for inspiration to a pharmacist from the United Kingdom Across the ocean, an article in a newspaper motivated the woman who would make her own campaign to introduce this celebration in the United Kingdom, as highlighted by the Coddington History Group website. In 1913, the thirty-something Constance Adelaide Smith—whose pseudonym exchanged Adelaide for Penswick—read in the news Anna Jarvis's intentions to spread her idea beyond the American borders. But Smith, Anglican, wanted to adopt it with her own roots. For this, she took as a reference the medieval England and in 1921 published The revival of Mothering Sunday. In that pamphlet she compiled information about Mother's Sunday, an ancient tradition in which, among other things, the faithful would pilgrimage to the local cathedral. Smith—who, like Jarvis, had no children—continued the movement until her death in 1938. She did so not without experiencing ups and downs. Just as at first she was rejected by several religious societies, she turned them into allies to her four priestly brothers, who held the respective religious service in their churches. She also shared her longing with the Motherhood Union, but received no support due to the belief that it would be "impossible" to revive such a distant practice. Today, every year in the United Kingdom this day is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent, the period when Easter is prepared, the commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus. The revival of a medieval custom: "Mother's Sunday" Among the traditions there were laudable aspects but also their opposites, unnoticed by whoever the pharmacist was in the city of Nottingham. In the Middle Ages, there were conflicts between parishes, especially over who went first in the designated procession. A bishop of Lincoln already warned sternly about this fervor for the location of the banners: "Those who dishonor their spiritual mother must not, in any way, escape punishment, since those who dishonor their earthly mothers, according to God's law, are cursed and punished with death." Hunger was another of the factors that appeared for this annual event, which allowed workers a day off. As far back as the 17th century, the sons who visited their mother's roof upon returning from their work as apprentices and servants would do so with a caloric food: a simnel cake. This gesture had a particular purpose besides fulfilling the tradition. "It was one of the most difficult times of the year, when food reserves were at their lowest," said Professor Ronald Hutton of the University of Bristol to the BBC. More recently, the number of duels left by the First World War, far from stopping this celebration in the United Kingdom, intensified it, as asserted by historian Cordelia Moyse to the medium.