Unlike some of Google's doodles that are static art, this one is animated. If you hover your pointer over the doodle, you'll see the message "Happy Mother's Day!" and if you click on it Google takes you to a search results page for the holiday.

From there, you can learn from Wikipedia the fascinating story of how Mother's Day began and how it actually led to misery for its founder.

Apparently, a woman named Ann Jarvis had founded Mother's Day Work Clubs in several cities that did altruistic things such as improve sanitation and treat, feed, and clothe Union and Confederate soldiers. After her death, her daughter, Anna, held a memorial for Ann and worked to make Mother's Day a nationally recognized holiday, which eventually happened in 1914.

But get this: Anna soon turned bitter because the holiday became commercialized and people started sending their mothers printed cards -- a legacy that is still prominent in American culture today even in the electronic age.

"A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy! You take a box to Mother -- and then eat most of it yourself. A pretty sentiment," quotes her , which also points out that the soured woman was never married or had children and was once arrested for disturbing the peace. In the end, she died in poverty.