Philadelphia marks 100th birthday of Mother's Day

By Jon Hurdle

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters Life!) - The City of Brotherly Love will become the City of Motherly Love for a day to celebrate the 100th anniversary of American Mother's Day on May 11.

Philadelphia is making the most of its connection with Anna Jarvis, the woman who started Mother's Day in 1908 in honor of her mother, Anna Marie Reeves Jarvis, who died in the city three years earlier.

The Jarvis women were originally from West Virginia but moved in 1896 to Philadelphia, where the younger Jarvis persuaded retail entrepreneur John Wanamaker to hold the first Mother's Day celebration in the famous Wanamaker Building in central Philadelphia.

Since then the day has grown into a major holiday. Americans spent some $15.7 billion on flowers, chocolates, cards and restaurant meals for their mothers on Mother's Day last year, according to the National Retail Federation.

A splurge of spending is at odds with Jarvis's original vision of the day, according to Meryl Levitz, chief executive of the Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Corp.

"Ironically, she was not interested in a commercial celebration at all," Levitz explained. "She was interested in the warmth and intimacy, the circle of friends, the mothers and daughters aspect."

But Levitz said what John Wanamaker had in mind was another question and without his help she probably would never have achieved her goal of having mothers noted and celebrated nationally.

82 MILLION MOTHERS