‘Official’ Days Mix Sentiment and Commerce

A few notes about Mother’s Day and its relatives, about real and created holidays, about sentiment and commercialization.

There’s a common suspicion that Mother’s and Father’s days were commercial creations. Both, however, were first celebrated by churches at the instigation of individuals with unquestionably non-commercial interests.

Mother’s Day, the second Sunday in May since it was set by Congress in 1914, is sometimes attributed to Anna M. Jarvis of Philadelphia, sometimes to her West Virginian mother, Anna Reeves Jarvis, and the first observance in 1908 is, therefore, set in either Philadelphia or Grafton, W. Va. No problem: It was apparently introduced in both at the instigation of Anna 2nd, fulfilling her late mother’s dream of such a day.

Father’s Day, set on the third Sunday in June by Congress in 1916, is credited to both Sonora Dodd of Spokane, Wash., and Jessica Clayton of Fairmont, W. Va., in honor of their fathers, and Spokane and Fairmont periodically fight about it. Clayton’s church may have held the first service honoring fathers in 1908, but Dodd’s efforts, and her 1910 Spokane service, led to the national recognition.

Cards and Calls

Still, both days are unquestionably commercial, preceded by weeks of advertised gift ideas. The result: Mother’s and Father’s days generate an estimated $7.5 billion and $6.5 billion, respectively, in sales.

Last year, 145 million Mother’s Day cards were bought, and 100 million for Father’s Day. Some mothers must get more than one: The Mother’s Day Council in New York (a business-supported group organized in 1941 to promote attendant commerce and now insistently non-commercial) estimates that there are 80 million U.S. mothers.

Many cards, moreover, go to “grandmothers, stepmothers, mothers-in-law, someone like a mother to you, maybe even Dad’s girlfriend,” says Patty Brickman, spokesman for the Greeting Card Assn. in New York. (In fact, grandparents may get more cards on Mother’s Day than on Grandparents’ Day, which has been observed--the first Sunday after Labor Day--only since 1978, and sells only 4 million cards a year.)

American Telephone & Telegraph, with three-quarters of the long-distance call volume, carried 41.8 million calls last Mother’s Day and 37.4 million on Father’s Day. According to FTD (Florists’ Transworld Delivery Assn.), the Southfield, Mich.-based floral wire service cooperative, Mother’s Day helps the month of May account for almost 12% of the sales of retail florist shops, second only to December and Christmas; Father’s Day doesn’t take June beyond sixth place. The National Confectioners Assn. in McLean, Va., says mothers got $286 million worth of candy, the majority in gift boxes, and fathers nothing worth noting.

One-Time Designation

Oddly enough, these puffed-up days can’t match the commerce of “real” holidays--which involve days off from work and usually mark historic events. Christmas generates many more gifts, more long-distance calls (44.1 million for AT&T;) and a lot more greeting cards (2.2 billion). For that matter, Valentine’s Day (1 billion cards) and Easter (185 million) sell more cards, and Easter and Valentine’s Day sell much more candy ($799 million and $593 million apiece this year).

But people resent those less, perhaps because Mother’s and Father’s days are concocted, and not really holidays at all. They’re “official” days set apart by government decree to recognize someone or something--under current congressional rules, a one-time designation. Congress no longer establishes such days “in perpetuity,” as it did Mother’s and Father’s days.

On the federal level, such pro posed “commemorative resolutions” must be introduced and passed like any legislative bill, needing sponsors (218 in the House, 50 in the Senate), committee review (the census and population subcommittee in the House, the Judiciary committee in the Senate), and the vote of both houses before they become public law.

On state and local levels, the decision and handling may be executive. In California, the governor’s office reviews requests, issuing from 12 to 20 such “proclamations” a month. The Los Angeles mayor’s office issues 750 a year, making the tribute a questionable achievement.

Since they are concocted, one might suspect such days have commercial impetus and purely financial goals. After all, and not surprisingly, such observances as Cancer Awareness Week, National Asparagus Month and National Catfish Day could have a lot of potential for fund-raising efforts or sales promotions.

At the federal, and in some cases, the state levels, there’s some effort to avoid blessing for-profit businesses or causes. The declarations may be “commercially oriented but generic,” says Margaret Bengs, assistant to California’s governor for constituent affairs. California therefore has Pistachio Week and Ice Cream Month, and even has a Life Insurance Month (but stops short of suggesting a specific agent).

These are, if anything, more purely--if less successfully--commercial than Mother’s Day, but their defenders point out that furthering business helps develop the state and the nation. Actually, Mother’s Day defenders use the same line: “It’s a family and community event that brings out the best in people,” says Ted Kaufman, executive director of the combined Mother’s Day and Father’s Day Councils in New York. “It’s also good for business, which takes advantage of it as they do Christmas, and anything good for business is good for the country.”

Mother’s Day and Father’s Day promotions get special criticism from people who think business is antithetical to the particular tribute. Commerce, they say, has no place in sentiment.

In fact, for all the ads, it’s the homely and the homemade that get the attention--the burned toast, the portrait of Mom or Dad in Crayola colors. And the presence of gifts, commercial or not, needn’t change the spirit. “The fact that it’s a gift event is only typical of this country,” says Kaufman; “we give gifts for everything--Easter, Valentine’s, Thanksgiving. And they’re still gifts of love: If you don’t love Mother or Dad, you don’t give them anything.”