Mothers Day is Sunday, May 14, 2017. (Contributed photo/Dave Parker)
Happy Mother's Day!
Today - May 14 - is the time set aside to honor mothers. The day takes on different forms around the world but in the U.S., it usually revolves around flowers, cards, gifts and taking mom out to eat.
Mother's Day traces its roots the early 1900s, when Anna Reeves Jarvis of West Virginia held a memorial service in honor of her late mother. In 1908, she held the first official Mother's Day celebration at a Methodist church in Grafton, West Virginia. The celebration spread and Jarvis - who never married and had no children of her own - continued to lobby for a holiday honoring women. Joined by women's groups, Jarvis launched a letter writing campaign and by 1912, many states and towns adopted Mother's Day as an annual holiday.
In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a measure officially establishing the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day.
The holiday quickly drew the attention of merchants hoping to cash in on Mother's Day sales and before long, Jarvis began speaking out on the commercialization of the holiday, saying it was meant to honor the contribution of mothers and not fatten the wallets of businessmen.
Mother's Day fun facts
From the US Census Bureau:
3.9 million - The number of women between the ages of 15 and 50 in 2015 who had given birth in the past 12 months.
62.5 - The number of births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 in 2015, down 1 percent from 2014.
22.3 percent - The percentage of women ages 15 to 50 in 2014 who had given birth to two children. About 42.4 percent had no children, 17 percent had one, 11.7 percent had three, and about 6.8 percent had four or more.
62.4 percent - The percentage of women ages 16 to 50 who had a birth in the past 12 months who were in the labor force.
31.8 percent - The percentage of women who had given birth in the past 12 months who had a bachelor's degree or higher.
Source:
13,419 - The number of florists nationwide in 2015. Since 2005, the number of florist establishments decreased from 21,135 to 13,419, a decline of 36.5 percent. The number of employees in floral shops also declined from 101,861 to 60,076 employees in 2015, a decline of 41.0 percent.
14,162 - The number of employees of greeting-card publishers in 2015.
16,345 - The number of cosmetics, beauty supplies and perfume stores nationwide in 2015. Perfume is a popular gift given on Mother's Day.
22,160 - The number of jewelry stores in the United States in 2015--the place to purchase necklaces, earrings and other timeless pieces for mom.
5 million - The number of stay-at-home moms in married-couple family groups in 2016.
9.8 million - The number of single mothers living with children younger than age 18 in 2016, up from 7.7 million in 1985.
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