Mother's Day was started by a mom, of course. Ann Reeves Jarvis began Mothers' Friendship Day in West Virginia back in the 1860s and she had a surprisingly serious purpose. A social activist and mother of 13, Jarvis hoped the special day would quiet the seething animosity between the Union and Confederate soldiers, and their families and neighbors following the Civil War.

Her daughter took it very seriously too. After Ann Jarvis died in 1905, her daughter, Anna Jarvis, made it her mission to take Mother's Day national—although she never had any children herself. But in the end, she campaigned against what she saw as its commercialization—from candy to store-bought cards to a 1934 postage stamp.

Mother's Day is the busiest day of the year for phone traffic in countries all around the globe. Americans alone spent approx. $3 billion on Mother's Day flowers and $816 million on cards in 2017.

Mother's Day is celebrated in other countries too. After their enormous loses in World War I, the French were desperate to rebuild the country. So the government celebrated Mother's Day in 1920 by presenting women who had five children with a bronze medal. Mothers of eight got silver and those with ten or more got the gold medal.

In Mexico, Dia de las Madres (on May 10) is one of the biggest holidays south of the border— not just for restaurants but for mariachi bands. Families often hire a band months in advance to perform the traditional song, "Las Mañanitas".

Have you ever asked yourself, or thought, what is a mother worth? Insure.com estimates that it would cost $67,619 a year to hire someone to do all the household tasks that Mom does for free: cooking, cleaning etc. That's about as much as an average accountant or chiropractor makes.

Here are a few more interesting, if not crazy things, dealing with mothers.

In India, Daljinder Kaur was believed to be in her early 70s when she gave birth to a bouncing baby boy on April 19, 2016. Kaur and her 79-year-old husband, Mohinder Singh Gill, spent decades trying to have a baby and finally succeeded after saving up enough money for fertility treatments.
Becoming a future mom is good for a woman's brain. Pregnancy not only alters a woman's skin and hair but may also affect her brain.

According to a 2010 study by the American Psychological Association, the changes include a small but significant increase in gray matter in the parts of the brain responsible for sensory perception, reasoning and judgment which I can say definitely helps in raising children.

Last, but not least, babies in nearly every country on the planet speak the work mama in exactly the same way.
Now you know a little bit more about a special day in May. Happy Mother's Day to all.

~ Karen Daly