Mother’s Day is known as a day to appreciate and celebrate motherhood. But its history tells a different story. One of its founders, Anna Jarvis, actually despises the modern concept of Mother’s Day which we have been celebrating since the 1900s.

In an article from National Geographic, mother’s day is said to be “founded for mourning women to remember fallen soldiers and work for peace.”

According to Katharine Antolini, a historian from West Virginia Wesleyan College, Anna Jarvis’ mother–Ann Reeves Jarvis–started a Mother’s Day work club in the 1950s. The club sought to improve sanitation to combat the infant mortality rate. The group tended wounded soldiers during the U.S. Civil War as well.

The first Mother’s Day was observed in 1908. Jarvis organized the event in commemoration of her late mother and the work she has done. The white carnation flower is used for the event because it is Jarvis’ mother’s favorite flower. In a 1927 interview, Anna said “the carnation does not drop its petals, but hugs them to its heart as it dies, and so, too, mothers hug their children to their hearts, their motherly love never dying.”

As more people joined in the observance of Mother’s Day, the 28th President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson officially recognized it as a holiday. In 1914, every second Sunday of May was set to observe Mother’s Day.

The celebration got more “commercialized” over the years and Anna Jarvis spent her lifetime fighting consumerism. For Anna, it defeated the purpose of Mother’s Day which she originally started. Businesses are profiting from an event that is meant to be intimate and personal.

Before she died, Jarvis lost money in her fight to bring back Mother’s day to its roots. Until now, Mother’s day is celebrated opposite of what Jarvis’ intended. With this, a question comes to mind though, did Mother’s Day really lose its essence if it still brings people back home to their mothers?