GRAFTON (West Virginia), May 11: On this 100th anniversary of Mother’s Day, the woman credited with creating one of the world’s most celebrated holidays probably would not be pleased with all the flowers, candy or gifts.

Anna Jarvis would want us to give mothers a white carnation — she felt it signified the purity of a mother’s love.

Jarvis, who never married and never had children, got the Mother’s Day idea after her mother said it would be nice if someone created a memorial to mothers.

Three years after her mother died in 1905, she organised the first official mother’s day service at a church where her mother had spent more than 20 years teaching Sunday school.

Today, the former Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church is the official shrine to mothers around the world. On Sunday, the shrine celebrated the 100th anniversary, giving each mother attending a special service a white carnation.

The shrine also serves as a “reminder to the accomplishments of these women and to the issues mothers still deal with today, trying to do the balancing act of being everything to everyone,” said Cindi Mason, the shrine’s director.

According to the US Census Bureau, there are 83 million mothers in the United States. More mothers now work out of the home and the number of single-mother households has tripled to more than 10 million since 1970.—AP