Mother's Day Originated As City Celebration: Phun Philly Phact

PHILADELPHIA, PA — As we celebrate all of our mothers on Sunday with presents, meals, flowers, cake, and cards, we can thank a woman who got the holiday launched in the city.

The city hosted the first official celebration of the holiday over 118 years ago.

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Anna Jarvis founded Mother's Day after picking up the mantle from her own mother Ann, who organized a committee to establish a "Mother's Friendship Day," the purpose of which was "to reunite families that had been divided during the Civil War."

She had organized Mother's Day Work Clubs to improve sanitation and health for both Union and Confederate encampments undergoing a typhoid outbreak.

When her mother died on May 9, 1905, Jarvis decided to do something special in tribute.

She worked with Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker to hold the first authorized Mother's Day service at the Wanamaker’s Store in Philadelphia on May 10, 1908.

The next year, Mother's Day was reported to be widely celebrated in New York.

To this day, anyone who visits Philadelphia will see the sign marker for the holiday at the corner of Broad and Market Streets just across from City Hall.

As time went on, Jarvis got upset with the commercialization of the holiday in Philadelphia, attempting to get it abolished later in her life.