Mother's Day

This article is about several worldwide days celebrating motherhood. For other uses, see Mother's Day (disambiguation).

Mother's Day
A homemade cake, one of many ways a family might celebrate Mother's Day, or Mothering Sunday
Observed by	Many countries
Type	Commercial
Date	Varies regionally
Related to	Father's Day, Parents' Day, Children's Day

The modern Mother's Day is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in May or in March/April, as a day to honour mothers and motherhood. In the UK and Ireland it follows the old traditions of Mothering Sunday, celebrated in March/April.

Father's Day is the corresponding day for the father.

Historical antecedents

Lamberts thought this day emerged from a custom of mother worship in ancient Greece, which kept a festival to Cybele, a great mother of Greek gods.{Encyclopædia Britannica|(1959)Vol.15,p. 849} This festival was held around the Vernal Equinox around Asia Minor and eventually in Rome itself from the Ides of March (15 March) to 18 March.

The ancient Romans also had another holiday, Matronalia, that was dedicated to Juno, though mothers were usually given gifts on this day.

In Europe there were several long standing traditions where a specific Sunday was set aside to honor motherhood and mothers such as Mothering Sunday. Mothering Sunday celebrations are part of the liturgical calendar in several Christian denominations, including Anglicans, and in the Catholic calendar is marked as Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent to honour the Virgin Mary and your "mother" church (the main church of the area). Children and young people who were "in service" (servants in richer households) were given a day off on that date so they could visit their families (or, originally, return to their "mother church). The children would pick wild flowers along the way to place them in the church or to give them to their mothers as gifts.

International Women's Day was celebrated for the first time in 28 February 1909, in the US, by which time Anna Jarvis had already begun her national campaign in the US. It is now celebrated in many countries on March 8.

The "Mother's Day Proclamation" by Julia Ward Howe was one of the early calls to celebrate Mother's Day in the United States. Written in 1870, Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation was a pacifist reaction to the carnage of the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. The Proclamation was tied to Howe's feminist belief that women had a responsibility to shape their societies at the political level.

Spelling

In 1912, Anna Jarvis trademarked the phrases "second Sunday in May" and "Mother's Day", and created the Mother's Day International Association.

"She was specific about the location of the apostrophe; it was to be a singular possessive, for each family to honour their mother, not a plural possessive commemorating all mothers in the world."

This is also the spelling used by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in the law making official the holiday in the U.S., by the U.S. Congress on bills, and by other U.S. presidents on their declarations.

Common usage in English language also dictates that the ostensibly singular possessive "Mother's Day" is the preferred spelling, although "Mothers' Day" (plural possessive) is not unheard of.

Dates around the world

As the US holiday was adopted by other countries and cultures, the date was changed to fit already existing celebrations honouring motherhood, like Mothering Sunday in the UK or the Orthodox celebration of Jesus in the temple in Greece. In some countries it was changed to dates that were significant to the majority religion, like the Virgin Mary day in Catholic countries, or the birthday of the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad in Islamic countries. Other countries changed it to historical dates, like Bolivia using the date of a certain battle where women participated. See the "International history and traditions" section for the complete list.

Note: Countries that celebrate the International Women's Day instead of Mother's Day are marked with a dagger '†'.

Gregorian calendar
Occurrence	Dates	Country
Second Sunday of February	February 12, 2023 February 11, 2024 February 9, 2025	Norway
March 3		Georgia
March 8		Afghanistan Albania† Armenia	Azerbaijan Belarus† Bosnia and Herzegovina†	Bulgaria† Kazakhstan† Laos	Macedonia† Romania Moldova Montenegro†	Russia†* Serbia† Ukraine Vietnam†*
Fourth Sunday in Lent	March 22, 2009 March 14, 2010 April 3, 2011	Ireland Nigeria	United Kingdom
March 21 (vernal equinox)		Bahrain Egypt Jordan Kuwait Libya	Lebanon Oman Palestinian Territories Israeli Arabs	Saudi Arabia Sudan Syria	United Arab Emirates Yemen (All Arab countries in general) Iraq
March 25		Slovenia
April 7		Armenia
First Sunday in May	May 7, 2023 May 5, 2024 May 4, 2025	Hungary Lithuania	Mozambique Portugal	Spain
May 8		Albania (Parents' Day) South Korea (Parents' Day)
May 10		El Salvador Guatemala	Mexico
Second Sunday of May	May 14, 2023 May 12, 2024 May 11, 2025	Anguilla Aruba Australia Austria Bahamas Bangladesh Barbados Belgium Belize Bermuda Bonaire Brazil Brunei Bulgaria	Canada Chile People's Republic of China† Colombia Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark	Dominica Ecuador Estonia Ethiopia Fiji Finland Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Honduras Hong Kong Iceland India	Italy Jamaica Japan Latvia* Liechtenstein* Macao Malaysia Malta Myanmar Netherlands New Zealand Pakistan Papua New Guinea Peru	Philippines Puerto Rico St. Kitts & Nevis St. Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa Singapore Sint Maarten Slovakia South Africa Sri Lanka Suriname	Switzerland Taiwan Tanzania Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Turkey Uganda Ukraine United States Uruguay Venezuela Zambia Zimbabwe
May 15		Paraguay (same day as Día de la Patria)
May 26		Poland "Dzien Matki"
May 27		Bolivia
Last Sunday of May	May 31, 2009 May 30, 2010	Algeria Dominican Republic	France (First Sunday of June if Pentecost occurs on this day) French Antilles (First Sunday of June if Pentecost occurs on this day)	Haiti Mauritius Morocco	Sweden Tunisia
May 30		Nicaragua
June 1		Mongolia† (The Mothers and Children's Day.)
Second Sunday of June	June 11, 2023 June 9, 2024 June 8, 2025	Luxembourg
Last Sunday of June	June 28, 2009 June 27, 2010	Kenya
August 12		Thailand (the birthday of Queen Sirikit)
August 15		Costa Rica
Second Monday of October	October 9, 2023 October 14, 2024 October 13, 2025	Malawi
October 14		Belarus
Third Sunday of October	October 18, 2009 October 17, 2010	Argentina (Día de la Madre)
Last Sunday of November	November 29, 2009 November 28, 2010	Russia
December 8 (Feast of the Immaculate Conception)		Panama
December 22		Indonesia
Other calendars
Occurrence	Gregorian dates	Country
Shevat 30	Between January 30 and March 1	Israel
Baisakh Amavasya (Mata Tirtha Aunsi)	Between 19 April and 29 April	Nepal
20 Jumada al-thani	14 June 2009	Iran

International history and traditions

In most countries, Mother's Day is a recent observance derived from the holiday as it has evolved in North America. When it was adopted by other countries and cultures, it was given different meanings, associated to different events (religious, historical or legendary), and celebrated in a different date or dates.

Some countries already had existing celebrations honoring motherhood, and their celebrations have adopted several external characteristics from the US holiday, like giving carnations and other presents to your own mother.

The extent of the celebrations varies greatly. In some countries, it is potentially offensive to one's mother not to mark Mother's Day. In others, it is a little-known festival celebrated mainly by immigrants, or covered by the media as a taste of foreign culture (compare the celebrations of Diwali in the UK and the United States).

Religion

In the Catholic Church, the holiday is strongly associated with reverencing the Virgin Mary.

In Hindu tradition it is called "Mata Tirtha Aunshi" or "Mother Pilgrimage fortnight", and it is celebrated in countries with Hindu population, especially in Nepal. It is celebrated on the new moon day in the month of Baisakh i.e. April/May.

Countries

African countries

Many African countries adopted the idea of one Mother's Day from the British tradition, although there are many festivals and events celebrating mothers within the many diverse cultures on the African continent that long pre-date the colonization of Africa by European powers.

Arab World

Mother's Day in most of Arab countries is celebrated on March 21. Egypt was the first country to celebrate this day.

Australia

In Australia, Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in May. It is not a public holiday, nor is it known as a holiday.

Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of the month of May. In observance of the day discussion programs are organized by government and non-governmental organizations. Reception programs, cultural programs are organized to mark the day in the Capital city. Television channels aired special programs and newspapers published special features and column to mark the day. Greeting cards, flowers and gifts featuring mother’s specialty to the children were on high demand at the shops and markets.

Bolivia

In Bolivia, Mother's Day is celebrated on May 27. The Dia de la Madre Boliviana was passed into law on November 8, 1927, during the presidency of Hernando Siles Reyes. It commemorates the Battle of Coronilla which took place on May 27, 1812, during the Bolivian War of Independence, in what is now the city of Cochabamba. In this battle, women fighting for the country's independence were slaughtered by the Spanish army. It's not a festive day, but all schools make activities and festivities during this day.

Brazil

In Brazil, Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in May.

The first Mother's Day in the country was promoted by Associação Cristã de Moços de Porto Alegre (Brazilian Christian Association of Servants of Porto Alegre), on May 12nd, 1918. In 1932, the then-President Getulio Vargas made official the date in the second Sunday of May. In 1947, Archbishop Jaime de Barros Chamber, Cardinal-Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, determined that this date was also included in the official calendar of the Catholic Church.

It's considerated an unofficial holiday (see Public_holidays_in_Brazil).

Bulgaria

In Bulgaria, Mother's Day is celebrated in March 8, as part of the International Women's Day.

Canada

See Public holidays in Canada#Other observances

The Mother's Day holiday, like St. Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Father's Day and Halloween, is traditionally observed in Canada. In almost all features, it is identical to the US version of Mother's Day.

Mother's Day in Canada is celebrated on the second Sunday in May.

China

In China, Mother's Day is becoming more popular, and carnations are a very popular gift and the most sold type of flower. In 1997 it was set as the day to help poor mothers, specially to remind people of the poor mothers in rural areas such as China's western region. In the People's Daily, the Chinese government's official newspaper, an article explained that "despite originating in the United States, people in China take the holiday with no hesitance because it goes in line with the country's traditional ethics – respect to the elderly and filial piety to parents."

In recent years the Communist Party member Li Hanqiu began to advocate for the official adoption of Mother's Day in memory of Meng Mu, the mother of Mèng Zǐ, and formed a non-governmental organization called Chinese Mothers' Festival Promotion Society, with the support of 100 Confucian scholars and lecturers of ethics. They also ask to replace the Western gift of carnations with lilies, which, in ancient times, were planted by Chinese mothers when children left home. It remains an unofficial festival, except in a small number of cities.

Czech Republic

Czechoslovakia celebrated Women's Day until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. After the split of the country in 1993, the Czech republic started celebrating Mother's Day and Saint Valentine's day. However, the Czechs saw those two celebrations as commercialized and artificial, and they had mild popularity. Nowadays, the sales of flowers in Women's Day are higher than in Mother's Day or S. Valentine's Day.

Germany

In the 1920s Germany had the lowest birthrate in Europe, and it was still declining. It was attributed to women's participation in the labor market. At the same time, all influential groups in society (politicians in both Left and Right, churchwomen and feminists) thought that mothers should be honored, but they couldn't agree on how to do it. All those groups agreed strongly in the promotion of the values of motherhood. This resulted in the unanimous adoption in 1923 of the Muttertag, the Mother's Day holiday as imported from America and Norway. The head of the Association of German Florists cited "the inner conflict of our Volk and the loosening of the family" as his reason for introducing the holiday, and he expected that it would unite the divided country. In 1925 the Mother's Day Committee joined the Task Force for the recovery of the volk, and the holiday stopped depending on commercial interests and it started being about the level of population Germany.

The holiday was now seen as a means to get the women to bear more children, and nationalists saw it as a way of rejuvenating the nation. The holiday didn't celebrate the individual women, but an idealized standard of motherhood. The progressive forces resisted the implementation of the holiday because it was backed by so many conservatives, and because they saw it as a way to cut the rights of the worker women. Die Frau, the newspaper of the Federation of German Women's Associations, refused to even recognize the holiday. Many local authorities made their own interpretation of the holiday: it would be a day to support economically larger families or single-mother families. The guidelines for the subsidies had eugenics criteria, but there is no indication that social workers ever implemented them in practice, and subsidies were given preferentially to families in economic needs rather that families with more children or with "healthier" children.

With the Nazi party in power during 1933–1945, this all changed radically. The propaganda for Mother's Day had increased in many European countries, including England and France, and Nazis increased it from the moment they entered into power. The role of mothers was unambiguously promoted as that of giving healthy sons to the German Nation. The Nazi party's intention was creating a pure "Aryan race" according to the nazi eugenics. Among other Mother's Day ideas, the government promoted the death of your sons in battle as the highest embodiment of patriotic motherhood

The Nazis quickly declared Mother's Day an official holiday and put it under the control of the NSV (National Socialist People's Welfare Association) and the NSF (National Socialist Women Organization). This brought conflicts with other organizations that resented Nazi control of the holiday, like the Catholic and the Protestant churches and local women organizations. Local authorities continuously resisted the guidelines from the Nazi government and kept assigning resources to families that were in economical need, much to the dismay of the Nazi officials .

The government started issuing in 1938, an award called Mother's Cross (Mutterkreuz), with different categories depending on the number of children. The cross intended to encouraging having more children, and recipients had to have at least 4 children. For example, a gold cross recipient (a level one) had to have eight children or more. Since having fewer children was a recent development, the gold cross was awarded mostly to elderly mothers with grown children. It promoted loyalty among German women and it was a popular award even if it had little material awards and it was mostly empty praise. The recipients of honors had to be examined by doctors and social workers according to genetic and racial values that were considered beneficial to the volk. The friends and family were also examined for possible flaws that could disqualify them, and they had to be racially and morally fit. They had to be "German-blooded", "genetically healthy", "worthy", "politically reliable", and they couldn't have vices like drinking. Criteria against honors were, for example, "family history contains inferior blood", "unfemenine" behaviour like smoking or doing poor housekeeping, not being "politically reliable", or having family members that had been "indicted and imprisoned". There were instances where a family was disqualified because a doctor saw signs of "feeblemindedness." Even contact with a Jew could disqualify a potential recipient. Social workers had become disillusioned from the Weimar Republic and supported Nazi ideas personally as a means to "cure" the problems of the country. Application of policies was uneven, as doctors promoted medical criteria over racial criteria, and local authorities promoted economical need over any other criteria.

The holiday is now celebrated in the second Sunday of May, in a manner similar to other nearby European countries.

Greece

Mother's Day in Greece corresponds to the Eastern Orthodox feast day of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. Since the Theotokos (The Mother of God) appears prominently in this feast as the one who brought Christ to the Temple at Jerusalem, this feast is associated with mothers.

India

Mother's Day is celebrated on second Sunday of May.

The festival of Pâthâre Prabhu is celebrated on the same day only in Bombay and the Southern part of India (concretely Konkan and the districts below the Western Ghats). The Pathare prabhu caste always celebrates this holiday.It is based on a legend about a mother whose children kept dying after only one year of living and it has a very remote origin. Although it's also called "Mother's Day", it is unrelated to the modern celebration, which is copied from the US (second Sunday of May) and is celebrated in the whole country.

Indonesia

Mother's day (Indonesian: Hari Ibu) is celebrated nationally on December 22. It is the day of the first Indonesian Women Congress (Indonesian: Konggres Perempuan Indonesia) from December 22 to 25, 1928. The meeting happens in a building now known as Mandalabhakti Wanitatama in Adisucipto Street, Yogyakarta. It was attended by 30 feminist organizations from 12 cities in Java and Sumatra. In Indonesia, feminist organizations have existed since 1912, inspired by Indonesian heroines of the 19^th century, e.g. Kartini, Martha Christina Tiahahu, Cut Nyak Meutia, Maria Walanda Maramis, Dewi Sartika, Nyai Ahmad Dahlan, Rasuna Said, etc.

The idea to make the day official was started during the third Indonesian Women Congress in 1938. It was signed by president Soekarno under the Presidential Decree (Indonesian: Dekrit Presiden) no. 316 year 1959. The day was originally aimed to celebrate the spirit of Indonesian women and to improve the condition of the nation. Today, Mother's Day is celebrated by expressing love and gratitude to mothers. People present gifts to mothers, such as flowers, hold surprise parties and competitions such as cooking competition or kebaya wearing competition. People also allow mothers to have their day off from doing domestic chores.

Iran

Celebrated on 20 Jumada al-thani, the birthday anniversary of Fatimah, Muhammad's daughter. It was changed after the Iranian revolution, the reason having been theorized as trying to undercut feminist movements and promoting role models for the traditional model of family. It was previously 25 Azar on the Iranian calendar during the Shah era

Israel

It is celebrated on Shevat 30, which falls anywhere between January 30 and March 1. It was set to the same day as the birthday of Henrietta Szold. Henrietta had no biological children, but her organization Youth Aliyah rescued many Jewish children from Nazi Germany and took care of them, and she also fought for several rights of Jewish children. She is considered the "mother" of all those children, and that's why her birthday was set as Mother's Day (יוֹם הָאֵם, yom ha'em). It has evolved over time, becoming a celebration of mutual love inside the family and it's called Family Day (יוֹם הַמִּשְׁפָּחָה, yom hamishpaxa). It's only celebrated by children at kindergartens, there are no longer mutual gifts among members of the family, and there is no longer any commercialization of the celebration. It's not an official holiday either.

Israeli Arabs (about 20% of the population) celebrate Mother's Day on 21 March, similar to other Arab countries.

Japan

Mother's Day in Japan was initially commemorated during the Shōwa period as the birthday of Empress Kōjun (mother of Emperor Akihito) on 6 March. This was established in 1931 when Imperial Women's Union was organised. In 1937, the first meeting of "Praise Mothers" was held on 8 May, and in around 1949 Japanese society adapted to celebrate Mother's day on the second Sunday of May, the same as many other countries. Nowadays it is rather a marketed holiday, and people typically give flowers such as red carnations and roses as gifts.

Mexico

See also: Public holidays in Mexico § Festivities

The government of Álvaro Obregón imported the holiday from the US in 1922, with the newspaper Excélsior making a massive promotion campaign that year. The conservative government tried to use the holiday to promote a more conservative role for mothers in families, which was criticized by the socialists as promoting an unrealistic image of a woman who wasn't good for much more than breeding.

In the mid-1930s the government of Lázaro Cárdenas promoted the holiday as a "patriotic festival". The Cárdenas government tried to use the holiday as a vehicle for various efforts: stressing the importance of families for national development, benefiting from the loyalty that Mexicans had towards their mothers, introducing new morals to Mexican women and reducing the influence that the church and the Catholic right had on them. The government sponsored the holiday in the schools. However, the theatre plays ignored the strict guidelines from the government and they were filled with religious icons and themes, and the "national celebrations" became "religious fiestas" despite the efforts of the government.

Soledad Orozco García, the wife of President Manuel Ávila Camacho, promoted the holiday during the 1940s, making it into an important state-sponsored celebration. The 1942 celebration lasted a whole week, including an announcement that all women could reclaim their pawned sewing machines Monte de Piedad at no cost.

The catholic National Synarchist Union (UNS) started paying attention to the holiday around 1941, due to Orozco's promotion. The members of the Party of the Mexican Revolution (nowadays PRI) that owned shops had a custom where women from humble classes could go to their shop in mother's day, pick a gift for free, and bring it home to their families. The Synarchists worried that this promoted both materialism and the idleness of lower classes, and in turn reinforced the systemic social problematics of the country. While nowadays we see those holiday practices as very conservative, the 1940s' UNS was viewing the holiday as a part of the larger debate on modernization that was happening at the time. This economic modernization was inspired by US models and was sponsored by the state, and the fact that the holiday was originally imported from the US was only seen as one more piece of evidence that it was an attempt at imposing capitalization and materialism in Mexican society.

Also, the UNS and the clergy of the city of León saw in the government actions an effort to secularize the holiday and to promote a more active role of women in society, with the long term goal of weakening men spiritually when women abandoned their traditional roles at home. They also saw the holiday as an attempt to secularize the cult to the Virgin Mary, inside a larger effort to dechristianize several holidays, and they tried to counter this by organizing massive masses and asking religious women to assist with the state-sponsored events and try to "depaganize" them. In 1942, at the same time as Soledad's greatest celebration of the holiday, the clergy organized in León the 210th celebration of the Virgin Mary with a big parade.

There is a consensus among scholars that the Mexican government abandoned its revolutionary initiaves during the 1940s, including efforts to influence Mother's Day. Nowadays the holiday in Mexico is a celebration of both mothers and the Virgin Mary.

Nowadays the "Día de las Madres" is an unofficial holiday in Mexico held each year on May 10.

Nepal

"Mata Tirtha Aunshi", translated as "Mother Pilgrimage fortnight", falls in the month of Baishak dark fortnight (April). This festival falls in the time of dark moon’s time which is why this called "Mata Tirtha Aunshi" derived from words: “Mata” meaning mother; “Tirtha” meaning pilgrimage. This festival is observed in the commemoration and respect of the mother which is celebrated by worshipping and gifting living mother or remembering mothers who have become immortal and are resting in peace. Going to Mata Tirtha Pilgrimage located towards the Kathmandu valley’s eastern side at Mata Tirtha Village development committee’s periphery is another tradition common in Nepal.

There is a legend regarding this pilgrimage. In ancient times Lord Krishna’s mother Devaki walked out her house to sight-see. She visited many places and delayed a lot to return back at her house. Lord Krishna became very unhappy because of his mother’s disappearance. So he went out in search of his mother to many places without success. Finally, when he reached “Mata Tirtha Kunda”, he happened to see his mother taking bath there in the spouts of that pond. Lord Krishna was very happy to find her there and narrated all of his tragedies in the absence of his mother. Mother Devaki said to lord Krishna that “oh! Son Krishna let then, this place be the pious rendezvous of children to meet their departed mothers”. So legends believe that since then this place had become a noted holy pilgrimage to see back a devotees’ deceased mother. Also legend believes that a devotee saw his mother’s image inside the pond and he happened to die falling there down. So still there is a small pond fenced by the iron rods in the place even on this present day as well. After the worship the pilgrimage enjoy there singing and dancing throughout the day in the festive mood. There is not evidence of happening of this legend as these are coming from elders based on ancient readings.

Nicaragua

In Nicaragua the Día de la Madre is celebrated in May 30 since the first years of the 1940s. The date was chosen by President Anastasio Somoza García because it was the birthday of Casimira Sacasa, the mother of his wife.

Pakistan

In Pakistan, Mother's Day is also celebrated on the second Sunday of May. On this day, individuals who have lost their mother pray and pay their respects to their loved ones lost.

Panama

In Panama it's celebrated in 8 December, the same day as the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. This date was suggested in 1930 by the wife of Panama's President Florencio Harmodio Arosemena, and it was passed as Law 69 in the same year.

According to other account, the Rotary Club of Panama asked in 1924 that Mother's Day was celebrated in 11 May to honor mothers, but a politician called Aníbal D. Ríos changed the proposal, so that it would be held in 8 December, and he made it into a national holiday.

Paraguay

In Paraguay it is celebrated in 15 May, the same day as the Dia de la Patria, which celebrates the independence of Paraguay. This is apparently to honor the role played by Juana María de Lara in the events of 14 May 1811 that led to Paraguay's independence.

In 2008 the Paraguayan Minister of Culture, Bruno Barrios, lamented this coincidence because Mother's Day is so much more popular in comparison that the independence celebration goes unnoticed; he asked that the celebration was moved to the end of the month. A group of young people was trying to gather 20,000 signatures to ask the Parliament to move Mother's Day. The Comisión de festejos (Celebration Committee) of the city of Asunción asked in 2008 that Mother's Day was moved to the second Sunday of May.

Thailand

Mother's day in Thailand is celebrated on the birthday of the Queen of Thailand, Queen Sirikit (12 Aug). It started being celebrated around the 1980s as part of the campaign by the Prime Minister of Thailand Prem Tinsulanonda to promote Thailand's Royal family. Father's Day is celebrated on the King's birthday.

Romania

In Romania, this is celebrated in March 8, as part of the International Women's Day.

Slovakia

Czechoslovakia celebrated Women's Day until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. After the split of the country in 1993, Slovakia started celebrating both Women's Day and Mother's Day. The politicization of Women's Day has affected the official status of Mother's Day. The center-right parties have demanded that Women's Day is officially replaced by Mother's Day, but they have been unsuccessful (due to the opposition of left-wing parties). In 2010, the SMER-SD (left-wing party) is trying to give Women's Day the status of official holiday. Nowadays, both days are festive, but they are not "state holidays".

Sri Lanka

Though Sri Lankans celebrate this day as official Mothers day, they believe each and every day should be kept for their beloved parents. Backed by sinhaleese aarya traditions and buddhist culture, they tend to worship their parents.

United Kingdom and Ireland

Main article: Mothering Sunday

In the United Kingdom and Ireland, there was a medieval celebration called Mothering Sunday, which falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent (14 March in 2010), exactly three weeks before Easter Sunday. It is believed to have originated from the 16th century Christian practice of visiting one's mother church annually, which meant that most mothers would be reunited with their children on this day. Most historians believe that young apprentices and young women in servitude were released by their masters that weekend in order to visit their families. As a result of secularization, it was then principally used to show appreciation to one's mother, although it is still recognized in the historical sense by some churches, with attention paid to Mary the mother of Jesus Christ as well as the traditional concept 'Mother Church'.

By 1935 Mothering Sunday was no longer celebrated in Europe. The idea was revived by the American soldiers who came to fight in World War II, who celebrated Anna Jarvis' Mother's Day on the second Sunday of May. People from Ireland and UK started celebrating Mother's Day on the fourth Sunday of Lent, the same day on which Mothering Sunday had been celebrated before it disappeared. Some traditions were revived, such as the tradition of eating cake on that day, although they now eat simnel cake instead of the cakes that were traditionally prepared at that time.

Mothering Sunday can fall at the earliest on 1 March (in years when Easter Day falls on 22 March) and at the latest on 4 April (when Easter Day falls on 25 April).

United States

Main article: Mother's Day (U.S.)

The United States celebrates Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May. In the 1880s and 1890s there were several attempts to establish a Mother's Day, but they didn't succeed beyond the local level. The holiday was created by Anna Jarvis in Grafton, West Virginia, in 1908 as a day to honor one's mother. Jarvis wanted to accomplish her mother's dream of making a celebration for all mothers, although the idea didn't take off until she enlisted the services of wealthy Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker. She kept promoting the holiday until President Woodrow Wilson made it an official national holiday in 1914. The holiday eventually became so highly commercialized that many, including its founder, Anna Jarvis, considered it a "Hallmark Holiday", i.e. one with an overwhelming commercial purpose. Jarvis eventually ended up opposing the holiday she had helped to create. She died in 1948, regretting what had become of her holiday. In the United States, Mother's Day remains one of the biggest days for sales of flowers, greeting cards, and the like; it is also the biggest holiday for long-distance telephone calls.

Commercialization

Nine years after the first official Mother's Day, commercialization of the U.S. holiday became so rampant that Anna Jarvis herself became a major opponent of what the holiday had become and spent all her inheritance and the rest of her life fighting what she saw as an abuse of the celebration.

Later commercial and other exploitations of the use of Mother's Day infuriated Anna and she made her criticisms explicitly known throughout her time. She criticized the practice of purchasing greeting cards, which she saw as a sign of being too lazy to write a personal letter. She was arrested in 1948 for disturbing the peace while protesting against the commercialization of Mother's Day, and she finally said that she "wished she would have never started the day because it became so out of control ...".

Mother's Day continues to this day to be one of the most commercially successful U.S. occasions. According to the National Restaurant Association, Mother's Day is now the most popular day of the year to dine out at a restaurant in the United States.

For example, according to IBISWorld, a publisher of business research, Americans will spend approximately $2.6 billion on flowers, $1.53 billion on pampering gifts—like spa treatments—and another $68 million on greeting cards.

Mother's Day will generate about 7.8% of the U.S. jewelry industry's annual revenue in 2008, with custom gifts like mother's rings.

It's possible that the holiday would have withered over time without the support and continuous promotion of the florist industries and other commercial industries. Other Protestant holidays from the same time, like Children's Day and Temperance Sunday, do not have the same level of popularity. Mother's Day is also prominent in the Sunday Funnies of the United States, being a rich source of humor concerning mothers, children and husbands ranging from sentimental to wry to caustic.

See also

• Children's Day
• Father's Day
• Hallmark holiday
• International Mother's Day Shrine
• International Women's Day
• May crowning
• Mothering Sunday
• National Grandparents Day

Bibliography

• Leigh Eric Schmidt (1997). Princeton University Press (ed.). Consumer Rites: The Buying and Selling of American Holidays (reprint, illustrated ed.). pp. 256–275. ISBN 0691017212.
• Larossa, Ralph (1997). University of Chicago Press (ed.). The Modernization of Fatherhood: A Social and Political History (illustrated ed.). p. 90,170–192. ISBN 0226469042.
• Newcomer, Daniel (2004). Reconciling modernity: urban state formation in 1940s León, Mexico (illustrated ed.). University of Nebraska Press. pp. 132–139. ISBN 0803233493, 9780803233492. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
• Sherman, John W. (1997). The Mexican right: the end of revolutionary reform, 1929–1940 (illustrated ed.). Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 44. ISBN 0275957365, 9780275957360. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)

External links

• International Mother's Day Shrine
• Mother's Day History
• US Presidential Proclamations on Mother's day