Some interesting facts about Mother's Day

* The first official celebration of mothers in the United States took place in 1858. Anna Reeves Jarvis campaigned for a Mothers' Work Day in her home state of West Virginia to raise awareness about local sanitation issues. When Jarvis passed away in 1905, her daughter Anna pursued a national mother's day in honor of her own activist mom. Anna's efforts paid off when in 1914, Mother's Day was recognized as a national holiday by Presidential proclamation.
* More than 83 million mothers are living today in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. There are approximately 2 billion mothers living worldwide.
* Modern moms have an average family size of two children, while mothers in the 1950s had an average of 3.5 children. In the 1700s, women gave birth to seven to ten children each.
* Nearly 96% of all Americans participate in Mother's Day celebrations in some way. For example, the holiday is the peak day for long distance carriers and one of the busiest days of the year for restaurants.
* The founder of Mother's Day, Anna Jarvis, was vehemently opposed to the commercialization of the holiday. "I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit," she once said. Despite Jarvis' opposition, Mother's Day is the second biggest gift-giving holiday in America, preceded only by Christmas. The National Retail Foundation estimates that Americans will spend more than $14 billion a year on Mother's Day.

Source: www.holidays.net/mother