Mother’s Day Becomes A National Holiday

Another mother had similar ideas to Julia Ward Howe, one of the founders of Mother’s Day. Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis believed in uniting mothers to help combat the ills of the city she lived in. For the purpose of improving the health condition of children by improving sanitation, Reeves Jarvis invented the Mothers Day Work Clubs for the churches. They were able to make a huge difference from their efforts.


Also like Julia Ward Howe, Reeves Jarvis was concerned about all mothers’ sons who fought during the Civil War. At that time she instructed the women who volunteered in her Mothers Day Work Clubs to disregard whether a wounded soldier was a member of the union army or confederate army and treat everyone the same.

After the war was over Reeves Jarvis continued her efforts to bring people of different persuasions together as Ward Howe did by organizing Mother’s Friendship Day. This day did not become the national holiday that she would have liked, so her daughter, Anna M. Jarvis, continued the fight. Reeves Jarvis died May 9, 1905 and after her mother’s death, Anna M. Jarvis was determined to make her mother’s dream come true.

Between 1907 and 1911 more and more states signed onto the idea of celebrating mothers on a national Mother’s Day. It became official in 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson made every second Sunday of May as the national holiday honoring mothers everywhere. This year, Mother’s Day falls on the 105th anniversary of Anne Marie Reeves Jarvis’ death.

The history of Mother’s Day may have motivated you to do something special for your own mother this coming Mother’s Day. Taking time out to honor mothers was meant by Julia Ward Howe and Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis to be the point of Mother’s Day. The online store, Dyani’s Creations will give you the chance to do this by finding something for your mother that she will really love. It is also easy!

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