May 10 is Mother's Day: Who started this tradition of honoring moms?

With just a week before Mother's day, I'm thinking of writing several articles this week in preparation for this very special day. As for my first entry on this topic, I am writing about the history of Mother's day.

The modern Mother's day holiday was created by Anna Jarvis in 1912. She also trademarked the phrases "second Sunday in May" and "Mother's Day". Note the position of the apostrophe: it's meant to be a singular possessive, for each family to honor their mother, and not a plural possessive commemorating all mothers in the world.

Jarvis, however, was against the commercialization of this holiday and used all her inheritance and the rest of her life fighting it. She criticized the practice of sending printed greeting cards on Mother's Day, and said that it just shows how lazy people are to write personal letters to their mothers. Jarvis died in poverty, and ironically was never married, nor had any children.

I think however commercialized Mother's Day has become now, almost a century after, it is a day to pay tribute to our mothers. Whether it is a personal letter or a greeting card, a breakfast in bed or a special meal at the restaurant, a store-bought cake or a home-made cookie, a box of chocolates or a hot cup of coffee, a bouquet of roses or a bunch of garden flowers, what's important is making your mother feel loved and special on her day! You can spend a fortune on this day, or a simple "I Love You, Mom" to make her smile...At the end of the day, when you really think about it, "no gift to your mother could ever equal her gift to you - Life!"