Anna Jarvis and Mother's Day

In news– Every year on the second Sunday in May, Mother’s Day is celebrated across the world.

Anna Jarvis & History of Mother’s Day-

Anna Jarvis was an American activist who founded Mother’s Day to honour her and “all mothers” in 1908.
The first official Mother’s Day celebrated through a service of worship at St. Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, on May 10, 1908.
Anna’s mother Ann Reeves Jarvis, driven by her own experiences, spent her life working for causes centred around motherhood, such as teaching mothers sanitation to prevent child mortality, and forming a community of mothers from both sides of the Civil War divide to bridge rankling differences.
When Mrs Jarvis died in 1905, Anna wrote letters to politicians, businessmen, and church leaders to enlist their support for her cause, proposing the second Sunday of May as a day dedicated to celebrating mothers, with a white carnation – her mother’s favourite flower – as the day’s emblem.
She chose the second Sunday of May so that the date would be close to May 9, when her mother had died.
Eventually the day grew in popularity, and in 1914, James Heflin of Alabama introduced a formal legislation to recognise Mother’ Day in the House of Representatives and President Woodrow Wilson on May 8, 1914, signed it into law.

However, throughout her lifetime, Anna Jarvis opposed the commercialization of Mothers day as she had intended it to be “a day of sentiment, not profit”.