Mother’s Day, to me, was always a "Hallmark Holiday" created by said company to sell more cards.  I actually got that idea from my Mom, so I feel comfortable in sharing it publicly here.  That’s why I was pleasantly surprised to learn of the true genesis of the holiday from Billy the Blogging Poet’s post "Mother’s Day in America":

In the beginning, the American celebration of Mother’s Day was an
effort on the part of the mothers of dead American soldiers to morn (sic) the
loss of their sons in war and to protest the wartime actions of the
United States during and after the American Civil War.

Mothers’ Day was first suggested in the United States by Julia Ward Howe, writer of the Battle Hymn of the Republic..
She suggested that Mothers’ Day be dedicated to peace. Miss Howe
organized Mothers’ Day meetings in Boston every year and was influenced
by Anna Jarvis, but like Mrs. Jarvis, failed in her attempt to get
formal recognition of a “Mothers’ Day for Peace.”

Anna Jarvis– a young Appalachian homemaker who began work in 1858 to
improve sanitation using what she called Mothers’ Work Days– organized
women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions
for both sides, and in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union and
Confederate neighbors, but neither of these women– Anna Jarvis or
Julia Howe– sought to make Mothers’ Day a celebration of motherhood as
it is celebrated today.

It ends up that Anna Jarvis’s daughter spearheaded the effort to get Mother’s Day officially recognized as a national holiday.  President Wilson did so in 1914.

Visit Billy’s post to read the whole piece.  It’s very interesting.