The beginning

The church honored Miss Anna Jarvis in Grafton, West Virginia, and in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania on May 10, 1908. This was the beginning of Mother’s Day in the United States.
Carnations were one of her mother’s favorite flowers, especially white ones, because they were supposed to represent goodness, purity and patience, which are characteristic of a mother’s love. As time went by, red carnations became a symbol that the mother was still alive, and white carnations became a symbol that the mother had passed away.
The first official declaration of Mother’s Day in the United States was in West Virginia and Oklahoma in 1910. In 1911 the entire U.S. celebrated this day. By then these celebrations had also spread to Mexico, Canada, China, Japan, Latin America and Africa. Then the U.S. Congress officially agreed to announce celebrations of Mother’s Day, on May 10, 1913, and the first Sunday in May was chosen as Mother’s Day.