疫情让今年的母亲节庆祝格外朴素，不过这可能是母亲节创始人正希望看到的。
她会格外赞同如今疫情影响下低调从简的庆祝方式。节日的商业化曾令她痛心疾首，甚至提议取消这个自己亲手创办的节日。
“母亲节之母”是谁？
Anna Jarvis, the woman who founded Mother's Day in the US over a century ago，was one of 13 children, only four of whom lived to adulthood. Her older brother was the only one to have children of his own, but many died young from tuberculosis and his last direct descendant died in the 1980s.
一个世纪前，安娜·贾维斯在美国创立了母亲节。在家里的13个孩子中，只有四人活到了成年。其中只有一个哥哥育有子女，但许多孩子因肺结核夭折，最后一个直系后代也在20世纪80年代去世了。
Anna Jarvis's campaign for a special day to celebrate mothers was one she inherited from her own mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis.
用一个特定的日子颂扬母亲，这一想法其实是安娜承继了母亲安·里弗斯·贾维斯夫人的意愿。
Mrs Jarvis had spent her life mobilising mothers to care for their children, says historian Katharine Antolini, and she wanted mothers' work to be recognised. "I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mothers' day commemorating her for the matchless service she renders to humanity in every field of life. She is entitled to it," Mrs Jarvis said.
历史学家凯瑟琳·安托里尼说，贾维斯夫人用毕生精力鼓励母亲们照顾自己的孩子，她希望母亲们的付出能得到认可。贾维斯夫人曾说：“我希望在未来某时，有人能创立一个属于母亲的节日，来纪念她在方方面面对人类作出的无可比拟的奉献。她值得拥有自己的节日。”
She was very active in the Methodist Episcopal Church, where, from 1858, she ran Mothers' Day Work Clubs to combat high infant and child mortality rates, mostly due to diseases that ravaged their community in Grafton, West Virginia.
贾维斯夫人在卫理公会教堂非常活跃，从1858年起，她在那里经营母亲节工作俱乐部，努力降低西弗吉尼亚州格拉夫顿社区肆虐的疾病引发的婴童高发死亡率。
In the work clubs mothers learned about hygiene and sanitation, such as the vital importance of boiling drinking water. The organisers provided medicine and supplies to sick families and, when necessary, quarantined entire households to prevent epidemics.
在工作俱乐部里，母亲们学习了关于卫生和环境卫生方面的知识，比如烧开饮用水的重要性。组织者向患病家庭提供了药品和物资，必要时还对整个家庭进行了隔离，以预防流行病。
Mrs Jarvis herself lost nine children, including five during the American Civil War (1861-1865) who most likely succumbed to disease, says Antolini, a professor at West Virginia Wesleyan College.
西弗吉尼亚卫斯理学院教授安托里尼说，贾维斯夫人本人失去了9个孩子，其中五个在美国内战期间很可能因疾病死亡。
为什么在五月的第二个周日
送母亲康乃馨?
HELLO SPRING
When Mrs Jarvis died in 1905, surrounded by her four surviving children, a grief-stricken Anna promised to fulfil her mother's dream, though her approach to the memorial day was quite different.
1905年，在四个孩子的陪伴下，贾维斯夫人与世长辞。安娜·贾维斯悲痛欲绝，承诺要实现母亲的梦想——创立一个专属于母亲们的节日。但她和母亲对待该节日的方式不尽相同。
Whereas Mrs Jarvis wanted to celebrate the work done by mothers to improve the lives of others, Anna's perspective was that of a devoted daughter. Her motto for Mother's Day was "For the Best Mother who Ever Lived—Your Mother." This was why the apostrophe had to be singular, not plural.
贾维斯夫人想要庆祝的是母亲们为了改善别人生活所做的工作，而安娜则是从一个有心的女儿的角度来对待这个节日的。她的母亲节座右铭是“献给世上最好的母亲——你的母亲”。这就是为什么Mother's day 的撇号是在Mother之后，意味着仅代表自己一个人的母亲，而不是在‘s’之后，泛指众多的母亲。
"Anna envisioned the holiday as a home-coming, a day to honour your mother, the one woman who dedicated her life to you," says Antolini.
安托里尼说：”安娜·贾维斯把这个节日设想成一个回家的日子，一个纪念母亲为孩子献出了一生的日子。"
This message was something everyone could get behind, and also appealed to churches - Anna's decision to have the holiday on a Sunday was a smart move, says Antolini.
这个提议得到了民众的广泛支持，并且对教堂来说也很有吸引力 — 安托里尼表示，安娜把这个节日设定在周日是一个很明智的决定。
Three years after Mrs Jarvis's death, the first Mother's Day was celebrated in the Andrews Methodist Church in Grafton - Anna Jarvis chose the second Sunday in May because it would always be close to 9 May, the day her mother had died. Anna handed out hundreds of white carnations to the mothers who attended.
贾维斯夫人逝世三年后，世界上第一个母亲节在格拉夫顿的安德鲁斯卫理工会教堂举行——安娜选择了五月的第二个星期日，因为它临近五月九日，她母亲的忌日。安娜向前来参加活动的母亲们分发了数百束白色康乃馨。
Anna chose carnations because they were her mother's favorite flowers. White carnation was her most favorite because it represented the purity of a mother's heart. A white carnation was to be worn to honor deceased mothers, and a red one to honor a living mother.
安娜之所以选择康乃馨，是因为这是她母亲最喜欢的花，母亲认为白色康乃馨代表着母爱的纯洁。佩戴白色康乃馨以纪念已故的母亲，而如果要表示对仍在世的母亲的敬意，则应佩戴红色康乃馨。
The popularity of the celebration grew and grew - the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that soon you could not "beg, borrow or steal a carnation". In 1910 Mother's Day became a West Virginia state holiday and in 1914 it was designated a national holiday by President Woodrow Wilson.
这个节日越来越流行——《费城调查报》有篇报道说，很快你就“讨不到、借不到、偷不到一朵康乃馨了”。1910年，母亲节成为了西弗吉尼亚州的正式的节假日；1914年，伍德罗·威尔逊总统将它确定为美国国家法定假日之一。
An activist to the core, Anna Jarvis stepped outside the four walls of the house. Striking feature of her personality is that she did not frowned on the traditional women who felt complacent staying at home. Instead she strived to bestow honor and dignity on women who were homemakers. This was one of her main purpose of celebrating Mothers Day.
作为一个彻底的激进分子，安娜·贾维斯不安于被困家中。然而她的突出个性是她并没有对那些满足于当家庭主妇的妇女们不屑一顾，相反，她努力赋予家庭主妇以荣誉和尊严。这也是她庆祝母亲节的主要目的之一。
Mother's Day was even dragged into the debate over women's votes. Anti-suffragists said that a woman's true place was in the home and that she was too busy as a wife and mother to be involved in politics. For their part, suffrage groups would argue, "If she is good enough to be the mother of your children, she is good enough to vote." And they stressed the need for women to have a say in the future well-being of their children.
母亲节甚至牵扯到了有关妇女投票权的争论。反妇女政权论者提出，女人就应该在家待着，她们要同时扮演妻子和母亲的角色，根本没空操心政治问题。而对于这一问题，妇女政权论的支持者辩驳道：“如果她够格做你孩子的母亲，那她也够格拥有投票权。”他们还强调，女性在有关孩子未来福祉的问题上应当有话语权。
商业化把节日变成了怪物
Shortly after the official launch of Mother's Day, Jarvis begins to sense she’s created a monster when she sees the florist, card and candy industries cashing in on Mother’s Day and public interest groups using the holiday to make political statements. She rails against exploitation of what was supposed to be a special, reverential day for families.
母亲节正式确立后不久，花农、贺卡制造业和糖果业趁此机会大捞一笔，公共利益团体也利用这个节日发表政治声明。贾维斯发觉她创造的不是一个节日，而是一个怪物。她痛斥这种商业化剥削，因为母亲节对家庭来说本应是一个特殊的、充满敬意的日子。
When the price of carnations rocketed, she released a press release condemning florists: "WHAT WILL YOU DO to rout charlatans, bandits, pirates, racketeers, kidnappers and other termites that would undermine with their greed one of the finest, noblest and truest movements and celebrations?" By 1920, she was urging people not to buy flowers at all.
康乃馨的价格飙升之后，她发布了一篇新闻稿谴责花农：“你要怎么才能击溃江湖骗子、强盗、海盗、敲诈勒索者、绑匪和其他像白蚁一样贪婪的人，才能阻止他们破坏这场最完美无暇、高贵真挚的庆祝活动？”到1920年，她敦促人们不管是什么花，一支也不要买。
The only one not to take advantage of Mother's Day, it seems, was Anna herself. She refused money offered to her by the florist industry.
似乎只有安娜自己没有从母亲节的商业化中谋利——她不接受一分花店主动给她的钱。
"She never profited from the day and she could easily have done so. I admire her for that," says Antolini.
“我佩服安娜的一点在于，尽管她能轻而易举地从母亲节中捞到一些好处，但她从来没有这样做。”安托里尼说。
Anna and her sister Lillian, who was visually impaired, survived on the inheritance from their father and their brother Claude, who ran a taxi business in Philadelphia before dying of a heart attack.But Anna went on to spend every penny fighting the commercialisation of Mother's Day.
安娜和她有眼疾的妹妹莉莲依靠父亲和哥哥克劳德留下的遗产维持生计。克劳德生前在费城经营出租车生意，后来死于心脏病。安娜倾其所有竭尽所能反对母亲节商业化。
亲手取消母亲节
Even before it became a national holiday she had claimed copyright on the phrase "Second Sunday in May, Mother's Day", and threatened to sue anyone who marketed it without permission.
在母亲节成为一个全国性的节日之前，安娜就在1912年成立了名为“母亲节国际联盟” （Mother’s Day International Association）的组织，并以“五月的第二个周日”（second Sunday in May）和“母亲节”（Mother’ Day）两个短语和康乃馨图案为该组织注册了商标，对母亲节提出了版权要求，提醒那些未经她允许便用母亲节盈利的人们会面临起诉。
"Sometimes groups or industries would purposely use the possessive plural spelling 'Mothers' Day' in order to get around Anna's copyright claims," says Antolini. A Newsweek article written in 1944 claimed she had 33 pending lawsuits.
安托里尼说：“有人故意使用复数形式的‘Mothers’ Day’来避开安娜对于母亲节的版权要求。”1944年的《新闻周刊》发文称，安娜有33起未决诉讼。
By then she was 80 and almost blind, deaf and destitute, and being cared for in a sanatorium in Philadelphia. There have long been claims that the floral and card industries secretly paid for Anna Jarvis's care, but Antolini has never been able to verify this.
安娜到了80岁的时候，几近失明失聪，穷困潦倒，住进了费城的一家疗养院接受照顾。据流传已久的说法，鲜花和贺卡商人匿名支付了安娜的疗养费，但安托里尼一组没能证实这种传言。
Sensing that she can’t contain her creation, Jarvis threatens to end it during the 1940s.
20世纪40年代，意识到自己无法控制自己所创立的这个节日日渐商业化，安娜想要将其终结。
One of Anna's final acts was to go door-to-door in Philadelphia asking for signatures to back an appeal for Mother's Day to be rescinded.
“She told me, with terrible bitterness, that she was sorry she had ever started Mother’s Day,” said one journalist who allegedly pretended to be a deliveryman so he could meet the increasingly reclusive Jarvis.
安娜最后的举动是在费城挨家挨户上门，请求支持废除母亲节的签名。一位记者假扮成一名送货员见到了越来越难找的安娜。他说：“她痛心疾首，说自己很抱歉当初创办了母亲节。”
Anna herself died of heart failure in November 1948.
1948年11月，安娜死于心力衰竭。
Jarvis dies at age 84, alone and penniless from the various legal battles she waged over the holiday she started. She never made any profit from Mother’s Day, and she never had any children.
安娜贾维斯去世时84岁，在从创办母亲节伊始就发起的各种法律官司之后，她孤身一人，身无分文。她从未在母亲节中获利，也从未有过孩子。
后辈的纪念：不过母亲节
The family did honour Anna's memory in another way - by not celebrating Mother's Day for several generations.
安娜的家人们已经有好几代人不再庆祝母亲节了，这是他们纪念安娜的一种方式。
"We really didn't like Mother's Day," says Jane Unkefer86, one of Anna's first cousins. "We acknowledged it as a nice sentiment, but we didn't go in for the fancy dinner or the bouquets of flowers."
“我们真的不喜欢母亲节，”安娜的一位表妹，86岁的简说道。“我们承认这是一种美好的情感，但我们并不会特地去吃一顿精致的晚餐或买一束鲜花。”
As a young mother Jane used to stop in front of a plaque honouring Mother's Day in Philadelphia and think about Anna. " People do remember their mom, just the way she would have wanted them to."
作为一位年轻的母亲，简也曾在费城的一块纪念母亲的石碑前驻足，回想起安娜。“人们的确会纪念母亲，以她当初希望的方式。”
Many families won't be able to treat their mothers to flowers or a day out and instead will celebrate Mother's Day via a video link, because of the lockdown.
受疫情影响，人们现在无法给母亲送上一束花或者是请母亲出去吃一顿大餐，只能通过视频的方式给母亲送上节日的问候。
But Antolini thinks Anna and her mother would have been pleased with such pared-down celebrations. She imagines that Mrs Jarvis, a veteran of many epidemics, would resurrect the Mother's Day Clubs to help others. And Anna would be delighted with the lack of shopping opportunities, which she felt clouded the purity of her original vision.
但是安托里尼认为，这样简约的庆祝方式正是安娜和她的母亲所希望看到的。贾维斯夫人一生中碰到过多次疫情爆发，她一定会重建母亲节工作俱乐部来帮助他人。安娜也会很高兴看到人们很少外出购物，她本来就认为商业化破坏了这一节日的纯洁性。
