We have said this before and we will say it again–assigning a single day to celebrate a certain relation or gender is not glorious. Just like any other Hallmark holiday like Grandparents’ Day, Secretaries’ Day, and even Boss’ Day–Mother’s Day is an elaborate profitable capitalist strategy. A simple day which once honoured mothers is now a grand marketing and advertising gimmick–which comprises Instagram pictures of brunches, breakfast in bed, multiple gifts, and sappy greeting cards.
This day is nothing but a grand day of disappointment overwrought with expectations. Same goes for Women’s Day and Father’s Day, and so on. If you are woken up from your reverie one day by app notifications asking you if you have sent a love letter to your mother, then you have a deeper problem to solve. Learn to communicate, stay in touch, and respect relationships that matter the most to you–so that you don’t have to apologise on this certain day for your absence. Recognize, acknowledge, and honour mothers in a genuine and consistent way because it is all that matters.
Fun fact about this day assigned to mothers is that the woman who spearheaded it back in 1908 wanted the so-called “holiday” to be scrapped. Anna Jarvis celebrated the first-ever Mother’s Day to honour her own mother. According to her, her mother was the epitome of kindness being a Sunday school teacher and caregiver for wounded soldiers during the Civil War. She passionately campaigned for the holiday to become official, which was officially recognised in 1914 by the American Congress.
To Jarvis’ despair, the day wasn’t just what she has envisioned it to be. It was taken over by the ambitious floral and greeting-card industries who foresaw its commercial possibilities. Come 1920, she was urging people to forsake this day as aggressively as before due to its disgusting remunerative avenues. In a press release she wrote in regard to florists and greeting card manufacturers, she said: “…charlatans, bandits, pirates, racketeers, kidnappers and termites that would undermine with their greed one of the finest, noblest and truest movements and celebrations.” The same woman who wanted it to be officially recognised went door-to-door appealing to rescind Mother’s Day.
As per the annual survey released by the American National Retail Federation on the expected expenditure that Americans are set to incur on this particular day in 2019 is appalling. The survey showed that a record $25 billion will be spent this year, up from $23.1 billion in 2018.
It is time we saw through these commercial “days” trying to invoke guilt in us and coaxing us to make up for our past doings with monetary gifts. Let us love our friends and families each day and respect all genders–women, men, and other–to experience a genuine positive feeling all-year round.
