A Holy Day

The first Mother's Day was celebrated through a service of worship 

at St. Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, 

on Sunday, May 10, 1908.

Boxes and boxes of carnations!

Have you ever seen so many?

All white. 

They say 25 are in each box,

and there are one, five . . . twenty boxes!

That’s why we’re lined up to enter church—

they’re asking each of us if we’re mothers

and giving each mother a flower.

I heard that they’ll ask who has a mother

who is no longer living,

and then deliver to each another flower.

Can’t be more than 100 of us, really more like half that.

The Bishop is going to bless us.

It’s kind of sweet being honored this way,

though it’s not the same as if

my own children brought me a flower or two.

I wonder where they are today?

And what will happen to the rest of the carnations?

Do we have enough vases to keep them all in the church?

Could they all be for that crazy lady’s Mom?

She was a sweet lady.  May she rest in peace.

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This year was my first Mother's Day since Mom died. I stayed home with good memories of her, and then turned to my prompt to describe an historical event in poetry.  Why not Mother’s Day?  The first official Mother’s Day was in 1908.  Founded by Anna Jarvis, it was held in only two places: Grafton, West Virginia and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  The next year, 45 states and Canada and Mexico celebrated the day; and in 1914, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation calling for the observance of Mother's Day.  I found no descriptions of the very first day—except that on that day Anna Jarvis sent 500 white carnations to her mother’s church in West Virginia to be distributed to mothers.  And I found enough about Anna herself to understand that she had a very conservative view of Mother’s Day.  Her mother had wanted to develop a day for mothers to use as they wished, but Anna wanted to—and did—develop a day to honor woman’s role as mothers.  There is nothing wrong with that—but only in the church?  And without ever taking a stand for or against?  My own mother would not have been honored because she isn't part of a church and doesn't claim mothering as exclusive to women.  She cared about love, neighbors, being inclusive around the world.  In the following poem, I chose to let Anna Jarvis speak for herself: 

Anna Maria Jarvis 
(May 1, 1864 – November 24, 1948)

A Holy Day

I, Anna Jarvis, invented the Mother’s Day—
a holy day to honor my deceased mother
and other individual mothers, living
as well as dead.  But it’s a Mother’s Day,
with a singular apostrophe, because it’s
a personal day about you and your mother, not
you and all the other mothers in the wide world.
Let’s honor her devotion and sacrifice.  Let’s
use the second Sunday in May, when my mother
died.  Let’s keep it sacred and simple: give her a
single carnation and an intimate letter.
 
Mother’s Day is more appropriate to church than
the marketplace.  I’ll have no commercial claptrap
like store-made and mail-delivered cards and bouquets. 
I will sue those who perjure the day’s true meaning
and profit from it.  No Mother’s Day special luncheons,
please.  And no attaching it to causes like peace
as poet Juliet Ward Howe did way back in
1872.  Besides, that was in June,
not May.  Even Eleanor Roosevelt should have
known better than to use the day to fundraise to
lower high maternal and infant mortality.
 
That was in 1935.  I tried to stop it. 
I will fight 'til my last breath. You may not believe
motherhood is holy, but it is.  Marriage is sacred.
Don’t desecrate what every state in the Union
believes in: the love of mothers for their children. 
You may think mothers should stand up against guns, war,
and killing of all kinds—and I may agree, too. 
But pick another day, take 364 days, and leave
my Mother’s Day alone. Leave it in the church, please,
where it belongs. Preserve its beauty, like an un-
touched photograph.  Frame it.  Remember it is mine.

For my prompt "An Historical Moment" at What's Going On?

Four Sources:
The Surprisingly Sad Origins of Mother’s Day
Mother's Day creator likely 'spinning in her grave'
Mother’s Day in the USA: Holy Day or Marketing Bonanza? 

Anna Jarvis

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© 2024 Susan L. Chast