Mother's Day

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

Mother's Day
Observed by	Many countries
Type	Historical
Date	Varies regionally
Related to	Father's Day

Mother's Day is a day honoring mothers, celebrated on various days in many places around the world. It complements Father's Day, the celebration honouring fathers.

History

A celebratory Mother's Day cookie cake.

Different countries celebrate Mother's Day on various days of the year because the day has a number of different origins.

One school of thought claims this day emerged from a custom of mother worship in ancient Greece, which kept a festival to Cybele, a great mother of Greek gods. 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 addition to Mother's Day, International Women's Day is celebrated in many countries, most often on March 8.

Spelling

Although the guidelines of English grammar indicate that the holiday should be called "Mothers' Day" (as it is a plural possessive), common usage dictates that the ostensibly singular possessive "Mother's Day" is the preferred spelling.

Dates

Mother's Day is celebrated on different days throughout the world. Examining the trends in Google searches for the term "mother's day" shows two primary results, the smaller one on the fourth Sunday in Lent (it is also called ladies day and women's day), and the larger one on the second Sunday in May.

Mother's Day in various regions:

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

Occurrence	Dates	Country
Second Sunday of February	February 10 2008 February 8 2009 February 14 2010	Norway
February 2		Greece
Shevat 30 (Falls anywhere between January 30 and March 1)		Israel
March 3		Georgia
March 8		Afghanistan Albania† Armenia	Azerbaijan Belarus† Bosnia and Herzegovina	Bulgaria† Laos Macedonia†	Moldova Montenegro Romania	Russia† Serbia
Fourth Sunday in Lent	March 2 2008 March 22 2009 March 14 2010	Ireland Nigeria	United Kingdom
March 21 (vernal equinox)		Bahrain Egypt Iraq	Jordan Kuwait Oman	Lebanon Palestine Qatar	Saudi Arabia Sudan Syria	United Arab Emirates Yemen (All Arab countries in general)
March 25		Slovenia
April 7		Armenia
April 2 (Chinese calendar)		China
Baisakh Amavasya (Mata Tirtha Aunsi)		Nepal
First Sunday of May	May 4 2008 May 3 2009 May 2 2010	Hungary Lithuania*	Portugal Spain
May 8		Albania (Parents' Day) South Korea (Parents' Day)
May 10		El Salvador Guatemala	Mexico
Second Sunday of May	May 11 2008 May 10 2009 May 9 2010	Anguilla Aruba Australia Austria Bahamas Bangladesh Barbados Belgium Belize Bermuda Bonaire Brazil	Brunei Bulgaria Canada Chile China, People's Republic of China, Republic of (Taiwan) Colombia Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czech Republic	Denmark Ecuador Estonia Finland Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Honduras Hong Kong Iceland India Italy†	Jamaica Japan Latvia* Malta Malaysia Myanmar The Netherlands New Zealand Pakistan Peru Philippines Puerto Rico	Slovakia South Africa St. Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Sint Maarten Singapore Suriname Switzerland Trinidad and Tobago Turkey Ukraine United States Uruguay	Venezuela Zimbabwe
May 15		Paraguay
May 26		Poland
May 27		Bolivia
Last Sunday of May	May 25 2008 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 8 2008 June 14 2009 June 13 2010	Luxembourg
Last Sunday of June	June 29 2008 June 28 2009 June 27 2009	Kenya
August 12		Thailand (the birthday of Queen Sirikit Kitiyakara)
August 15 (Assumption Day)		Antwerp (Belgium) Costa Rica
Second Monday of October	October 13 2008 October 12 2009 October 11 2010	Malawi
October 14		Belarus
Third Sunday of October	October 19 2008 October 18 2009 October 17 2010	Argentina (Día de la Madre)
Last Sunday of November	November 30 2008 November 29 2009 November 28 2010	Russia
December 8		Panama
16 December, Iranian calendar: 25 Azar (Mother And Child Foundation)		Iran
December 22		Indonesia

International history and traditions

In most countries, Mother's Day is a new celebration borrowed from Western civilization. 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 colonisation. In Japan, Mother's Day is a heavily marketed concept.

China

In China, in recent years some people began to advocate for the official adoption of Mother's Day in memory of Meng Mu, the mother of Mèng Zǐ. It remains an unofficial festival, except in a small number of cities.

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. However, today many Greeks are beginning to observe Mother's Day as rendered by the West.

United Kingdom and Ireland

Main article: Mothering Sunday

In the United Kingdom and Ireland, Mothering Sunday, also called "Mother's Day", falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent (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 secularisation, it is now principally used to show appreciation to one's mother, although it is still recognised 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'.

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 (United States)

A selection of handmade Mother's Day gifts.

The United States celebrates Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May. In the United States, Mother's Day was inspired by the British day and was imported by social activist Julia Ward Howe after the American Civil War. However, it was intended as a call to unite women against war. In 1870, she wrote the Mother's Day Proclamation as a call for peace and disarmament. Howe failed in her attempt to get formal recognition of a Mother's Day for Peace.

Her idea was influenced by Ann Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker who, starting in 1858, had attempted to improve sanitation through what she called Mother's Work Days. She 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.

When Jarvis died in 1905, her daughter, named Anna Jarvis, started the crusade to found a memorial day for women. In 1907, she passed out 500 white carnations at her mother’s church, St. Andrew’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia—one for each mother in the congregation. The first Mother's Day service was celebrated on 10 May 1908, in the same church where the elder Ann Jarvis had taught Sunday School. Anna chose Sunday to be Mother's Day because she intended the day to be commemorated and treated as a Holy Day. Later commercial and other exploitations of the use of Mother's Day infuriated Anna and she made her criticisms explicitly known throughout her time .

Originally the Andrew's Methodist Episcopal Church, the site of the original Mother's Day commemoration, where Anna handed out carnations, this building is now the International Mother's Day Shrine (a National Historic Landmark). From there, the custom caught on—spreading eventually to 46 states. The holiday was declared officially by some states beginning in 1912, beginning with West Virginia. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother's Day, as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war.

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. 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 US jewelry industry's annual revenue in 2008. Americans are expected to spend close to $3.51 billion in 2008 on dining out for Mother's Day, with brunch and dinner being the most popular dining out options .

In May 2008, the US House of Representatives voted unanimously on a resolution commemorating Mother's Day, then Congressman Todd Tiahrt asked for a re-vote, and most members of his party voted this time against it. The resolution passed successfully on both votations. House Minority Leader John Boehner, asked about the matter, answered that "(they) just wanted to make sure that everyone was on record in support of Mother's Day".

See also

• Father's Day
• Mothering Sunday
• May crowning
• International Women's Day
• Hallmark holiday

External links

• International Mother's Day Shrine
• Mother's Day History