(CNN) — Mother’s Day is always observed on the second Sunday in May. This year, it will be celebrated on May 10, 2015.
Facts:
26 was the average age a mother gave birth for the first time in 2013.
In its early days, people observed Mother’s Day by going to church and writing letters to their mothers. Eventually, sending cards and giving gifts and flowers were added to the tradition.
120 million Mother’s Day cards are exchanged annually in the United States.
Consumers purchase an average of 2.8 Mother’s Day cards.
Approximately 65% of card sales occur five days prior to Mother’s Day.
More people purchase fresh flowers and plants for Mother’s Day than for any other holiday except Christmas/Hanukkah.
In 2015, the National Retail Federation (NRF) estimated that U.S. consumers would spend nearly $21.2 billion celebrating Mother’s Day.
Most consumers will give cards (80%) and flowers (67.2%) or take mom out (54.2%), but more money will be spent on jewelery ($4.3 billion), followed by cards ($2.2 billion) and outings ($3.8 billion), according to the NRF.
According to the Insure.com 2014 Mother’s Day Index, various tasks Moms perform at home would be worth $62,985 (up from $59,862 in 2013) a year in the professional world.
Anna Jarvis started the tradition of wearing a carnation on Mother’s Day. A colored carnation means that a person’s mother is living. A white carnation indicates that a person’s mother is dead.
History:
1872 – Julia Ward Howe, who is a pacifist, suffragette, and writer of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” first suggests Mother’s Day in the United States. She suggests the day as a day mothers could rally for peace and for several years, she holds an annual Mother’s Day meeting in Boston.
1908 – Anna Jarvis begins a campaign for a nationwide observance of Mother’s Day in honor of her late mother, a community health advocate. Anna Jarvis was deeply dismayed over the commercialization of Mother’s Day. Before she died in 1948, she admitted that she regretted ever starting the holiday.
May 9, 1914 – President Woodrow Wilson signs a bill recognizing Mother’s Day as a national holiday.
