This year, on May 11th, Americans will continue the tradition of celebrating mothers and those who care for them.
Each year, people show appreciation with cards, flowers, gifts, and meals for a holiday with a complex past. Here are some interesting facts about Mother’s Day as it approaches.
The first Mother’s Day was organized on May 10, 1908 in West Virginia and Pennsylvania
Anna Jarvis, a copywriter from West Virginia, is considered the founder of Mother’s Day. Born during the Civil War, she witnessed her mother, Ann, organizing Mother’s Work Clubs to support soldiers on both sides and unite mothers from the North and South, according to the .
Jarvis envisioned as a tribute to her mother’s work and peace efforts. In 1907, she held a small gathering to share her idea for a national holiday honoring mothers.
In 1908, the first official Mother’s Day celebrations took place on the second Sunday in May—the anniversary of Jarvis’s mother’s passing—in Grafton, West Virginia, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Although Jarvis celebrated in Philadelphia, she sent 500 white carnations to Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in her West Virginia hometown in honor of her late mother, Ann.
Following these initial celebrations, Jarvis launched a nationwide letter-writing campaign to advocate for an official holiday dedicated to honoring mothers.
Mother’s Day became an official holiday in 1914
Jarvis’s efforts were successful in 1914. On May 8, 1914, Congress passed a law designating the second Sunday of May as Mother’s Day. The following day, President Woodrow Wilson the holiday, also recognizing it as a day to honor mothers whose sons had died in war. The first official Mother’s Day was celebrated on May 10, 1914, although the holiday was already widely observed.
Carnations are the official flowers of Mother’s Day
Jarvis’s gift of 500 white carnations to commemorate her mother initiated the tradition of using these flowers for Mother’s Day.
Traditionally, even before the holiday was officially recognized, vendors sold carnations for churchgoers to wear: red for those with living mothers and white for those whose mothers had passed away.
that Mother’s Day is the third-highest revenue holiday for florists, surpassed only by Valentine’s Day and Christmas/Hanukkah.
Anna Jarvis spent the later part of her life fighting against Mother’s Day
Despite her work in establishing Mother’s Day as an official holiday, historians note that Jarvis later opposed the holiday’s commercialization and popularization, arguing that it had deviated from her original intention.
“They’re commercializing my Mother’s Day,” she lamented in a letter to newspapers, according to the Washington Post. In another news release, she questioned: “WHAT WILL YOU DO to route charlatans, bandits, pirates, racketeers, kidnappers and other termites that would undermine with their greed one of the finest, noblest and truest movements and celebrations?”
Jarvis First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt for using Mother’s Day as a fundraising opportunity for charity, and for disrupting an American War Mothers convention in Philadelphia, where attendees celebrated Mother’s Day with white carnations.
Consumers are expected to spend $33.5 billion on Mother’s Day
Eighty-four percent of U.S. adults are expected to celebrate Mother’s Day in 2025, with total spending projected to reach $33.5 billion on gifts, flowers, cards, and meals, according to the , which conducts an annual consumer survey.
NRF anticipates that the biggest spenders will be those aged 35 to 44, with an average budget of $345.75 for the holiday. Flowers and greeting cards are the most popular gifts, with 74% of respondents planning to purchase them. Online shopping is the preferred method for buying Mother’s Day gifts.
Phone calls will likely soar on Mother’s Day
In 2024, reported that their customers used their phone networks 5.6% more on Mother’s Day compared to Father’s Day.
Verizon noted that not only were more calls made, but they also lasted longer. Consumers spent 137.5 million more minutes, or roughly 2.3 million hours, on the phone on Mother’s Day compared to Father’s Day.