Mother's Day was created in 1908 by a West Virginian, Anna Jarvis, who sought to create a holiday where all mothers would be remembered. Her own mother died early in May 1905. After trying to erect a memorial plaque honoring her mother at their church, Jarvis decided to pursue the creation of a national holiday honoring all mothers. She was successful, and the holiday was declared by Calvin Coolidge in 1914.
The floral and greeting card industries were quick to jump on the commercialization of the holiday, something that Jarvis strongly resented for the rest of her life. She said greeting cards "were a poor excuse for the letter you are too lazy to write." Her campaign to decommercialize the holiday she founded was unsuccessful as illustrated by the holiday today.
Mother's Day, long revered as an "institution" is relatively young
compared to holidays such as Christmas and Halloween. It was one of the
first holidays to be mass marketed, and set the definitive trend for all
other holidays.
Bibliography:
Consumer Rites: The Buying and Selling of American Holidays
by Leigh Eric Schmidt, Princeton UP, 1995