You may have heard the term “Hallmark holiday” used to describe those random celebrations of (obligated) gift-giving, but — while there are certainly lots of cards involved — the KC company had no part in creating them. That’s not to say it’s entirely innocent...
With Valentine’s Day upon us, we figured it was time to take a look at the abridged origins of a few “Hallmark holidays” and how this hometown card company joined the party.
This valentine, received by a Kansas City resident, is featured in KCPL’s extensive Mrs. Sam Ray Postcard Collection.
Postcard via MVSC
Valentine’s Day
Like the memories of your high school sweetheart, this story has been more-or-less lost to time. It may have started with a Roman fertility festival called Lupercalia, or the martyrdom of multiple same-named Christian saints — either way, people were writing letters to their “well-beloved valentines” by the late 1400s.
As for Hallmark’s part in it all, teenage founder J.C. Hall began selling V-Day postcards in 1910 before stocking shelves with originally designed valentines in 1916. Nowadays, we have Hallmark to thank (in part) for the roughly 145 million Valentine’s Day cards exchanged each year.
Mother’s Day
This day of matriarchs all started with (you guessed it) a mother. In the late 1800s, activist Ann Reeves Jarvis created Mothers’ Day Work Clubs and organized Mothers’ Friendship Day — where veterans from the North and South came together for the first time in years — following the Civil War.
After Ann died in 1905, her daughter, Anna Jarvis, organized the first formal “Mother’s Day” in honor of her own on the second Sunday in May. It became an official West Virginia holiday in 1910, with President Woodrow Wilson taking it nationwide in 1914.
Father’s Day
Dads owe their special day to the moms, as well. After hearing a sermon on the topic of Mother’s Day, Sonora Smart Dodd wanted to honor her father, who raised six kids after their mom died during childbirth. The celebration spread, but it wasn’t until 1972 that it became a national holiday on every third Sunday of June under President Richard Nixon.
