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Mother’s Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in May because over a century ago a daughter in Philadelphia wished to honor her own mother and grandmother and worked to set aside a day to celebrate motherhood everywhere.
Anna Jarvis in 1908 succeeded in convincing others to wear a white carnation in honor of mothers. By 1912 San Diego Mother’s Day was being celebrated in San Diego. It was established as a federal holiday in 1914.
A relative of Jarvis told the Union in 1926 that the founder believed the day should be devoted to reverence for mothers and for the memories of mothers who have died and not be “excuse for any commercial or charitable appeal for funds.”