With Mother's Day just a few days away, we are being bombarded with messages from greeting-card companies, florists and every other company under the sun, telling us how we can buy stuff to celebrate dear old Mom and how well she raised us. But while honouring parenting labour is always a good idea, it wasn't the original idea behind the holiday - and neither was the commercialism.

As many Feministing folks may know, but the general public does not, Mother's Day in North America has its roots in social activism, in particular that of three women: Ann Marie Reeve Jarvis, Julia Ward Howe, and Anna Jarvis. AMR Jarvis was the original founder, who led mothers' clubs to address the poor public health conditions that wer killing her and other women's children, and worked to reunite families torn apart by the Civil War. Julia Ward Howe, a suffragist and abolitionist, was inspired by her and issued a Mothers' Day Proclamation, calling on women to oppose war and the killing of each others' sons. Anna Jarvis, AMR's daughter, led the charge to have the day declared an official holiday to celebrate mothers' "matchless service to humanity," only to spend the rest of her life campaigning against the commercialism that so quickly took over the day. (You can watch a short animated video on the history here)

The Canadian organization where I work, Inter Pares, is a feminist social-justice organization that supports women and communities around the world, primarily in the global South. Like the Mother's Day founders, they are opposing war and building peace, constructing healthier communities, promoting justice, and supporting women's activism and leadership. So we've been doing our bit to share this radical history with others through our campaign Take Back the Day (http://www.takebacktheday.ca), which tells people about this her-story, and raises money for women's activism through alternative gift cards. Our hope is that like Take Back the Night and International Women's Day, Mother's Day will come to be recognized as a feminist holiday that celebrates the force for social change that is mothers around the world.  

However you celebrate the holiday, don't just thank your mom and other moms for creating and raising kick-ass little people - thank them for all the ways they make the world a better place.

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May 7, 2009 3:32 PM

[0+]  Francesca Casamento said:

Thank u for this informative post!

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May 10, 2009 11:51 AM

[0+]  parisla said:

Thanks for the post. I've cross-posted it on our Mother's Day for Peace Blogging Event page: http://codepinkalert.org/article.php?id=4865

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