Mother’s Day is a holiday honoring motherhood that is observed in different forms throughout the world. The American incarnation of Mother’s Day was created by Anna Jarvis in 1908 and became an official U.S. holiday in 1914.
Thought Jarvis liked the idea of honoring mothers, she had a different idea of how they should be recognized. Jarvis would later denounce the holiday’s commercialization and spent the latter part of her life trying to remove it from the calendar.
While dates and celebrations vary, Mother’s Day most commonly falls on the second Sunday in May — this year it’s May 10 — and traditionally involves presenting mothers with flowers, cards and other gifts. (Information obtained from www.history.com/topics/holidays/mothers-day.)
Flowers, candy and jewelry top the list of favored gifts. Mother’s Day accounts for one-fourth of the floral purchases made for holidays. About a third — 31 percent — of adults bought flowers or plants as gifts for Mother’s Day in 2014.
According to a survey by the National Retail Federation (NRF), two-thirds — 67.2 percent — of those celebrating Mother’s Day will buy mom flowers, spending a total of $2.3 billion in 2015. (Statistics obtained from www.aboutflowers.com/holiday-statistics.html.)
In 2014, it was estimated consumers spent an average $163 — $19.9 billion total — with the majority of their budget going to special outings, new apparel items and jewelry for the special lady in their life. As to why Mother’s Day is so much bigger than Father’s Day: the types of gifts people typically buy mom tend to cost a little more, and dad even admits that he doesn’t like all the fuss anyway. (Data compiled from https://nrf.com/news.)
