Happy Mother's Day: How It Started - Celebrated Around the World - Dates (With Links)

Mother's Day

 

Mother's Day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in the months of March or May. It complements similar celebrations honoring family members, such as Father's Day, Siblings Day, and Grandparents Day.

In the United States, celebration of Mother's Day began in the early 20th century. It is not related to the many celebrations of mothers and motherhood that have occurred throughout the world over thousands of years, such as the Greek cult to Cybele, the Roman festival of Hilaria, or the Christian Mothering Sunday celebration (originally a commemoration of Mother Church, not motherhood).^[1][2][3][4] However, in some countries, Mother's Day has become synonymous with these older traditions.^[5]

Establishment of holiday

Main article: Mother's Day (United States) § History

The modern holiday of Mother's Day was first celebrated in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother at St Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia. St Andrew's Methodist Church now holds the International Mother's Day Shrine.^[6] Her campaign to make "Mother's Day" a recognized holiday in the United States began in 1905, the year her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, died. Ann Jarvis had been a peace activist who cared for wounded soldiers on both sides of the American Civil War, and created Mother's Day Work Clubs to address public health issues. Anna Jarvis wanted to honor her mother by continuing the work she started and to set aside a day to honor all mothers because she believed that they were "the person who has done more for you than anyone in the world".^[7]

In 1908, the US Congress rejected a proposal to make Mother's Day an official holiday, joking that they would also have to proclaim a "Mother-in-law's Day". However, owing to the efforts of Anna Jarvis, by 1911 all US states observed^{[clarification needed]} the holiday, with some of them officially recognizing Mother's Day as a local holiday,^[8] the first being West Virginia, Jarvis' home state, in 1910. In 1914, Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation designating Mother's Day, held on the second Sunday in May, as a national holiday to honor mothers.^[9]

Although Jarvis was successful in founding Mother's Day, she became resentful of the commercialization of the holiday. By the early 1920s, Hallmark Cards and other companies had started selling Mother's Day cards. Jarvis believed that the companies had misinterpreted and exploited the idea of Mother's Day, and that the emphasis of the holiday was on sentiment, not profit. As a result, she organized boycotts of Mother's Day, and threatened to issue lawsuits against the companies involved.^[10] Jarvis argued that people should appreciate and honor their mothers through handwritten letters expressing their love and gratitude, instead of buying gifts and pre-made cards.^[9] Jarvis protested at a candy makers' convention in Philadelphia in 1923, and at a meeting of American War Mothers in 1925. By this time, carnations had become associated with Mother's Day, and the selling of carnations by the American War Mothers to raise money angered Jarvis, who was arrested for disturbing the peace.^[9][10]

Spelling

In 1912 Anna Jarvis trademarked the phrases "Second Sunday in May" and "Mother's Day", and created the Mother's Day International Association.^[11] She specifically noted that "Mother's" should "be a singular possessive, for each family to honor its own mother, not a plural possessive commemorating all mothers in the world."^[12] This is also the spelling used by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in his 1914 presidential proclamation, by the U.S. Congress in relevant bills,^[13][14] and by various U.S. presidents in their proclamations concerning Mother's Day.^[15]

Dates around the world

While the United States holiday was adopted by some other countries, existing celebrations, held on different dates, honouring motherhood have become described as "Mother's Day", such as Mothering Sunday in the United Kingdom^[5] or, in Greece, the Eastern Orthodox celebration of the presentation of Jesus Christ to the temple (2 February of Julian Calendar). Both the secular and religious Mother Day are present in Greece.^{[citation needed]} Mothering Sunday is often referred to as "Mother's Day" even though it is an unrelated celebration.^[5]

In some countries, the date adopted is one significant to the majority religion, such as Virgin Mary Day in Catholic countries. Other countries selected a date with historical significance. For example, Bolivia's Mother's Day is the date of a battle in which women participated.^[16] See the "International history and tradition" section for the complete list.

Ex-communist countries usually celebrated International Women's Day instead of Mother's Day.^{[17][not in citation given]} Some ex-communist countries, such as Russia, still follow this custom^[18] or simply celebrate both holidays, which is the custom in Ukraine. Kyrgyzstan has recently introduced Mother's Day, but "year on year [International Women's Day] is certainly increasing in status".^[19]

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Gregorian calendar
Occurrence	Dates	Country
Second Sunday of February	Feb 14, 2016 Feb 12, 2017 Feb 11, 2018	Norway
3 March		Georgia[20]
8 March (with International Women's Day)		Afghanistan  Albania  Armenia  Azerbaijan  Belarus  Bulgaria  Kazakhstan  Kosovo  Laos  Macedonia  Moldova  Montenegro  Russia  Serbia  Slovenia  Tajikistan  Uzbekistan  Vietnam[21]
Fourth Sunday in Lent (Mothering Sunday)	6 Mar 2016 26 Mar 2017 11 Mar 2018	Guernsey  Ireland  Isle of Man  Jersey  Nigeria  United Kingdom[22]
21 March (Spring equinox)		Bahrain[23]  Comoros  Djibouti  Egypt[23]  Iraq  Jordan[23]  Kuwait[23]  Libya[23]  Lebanon[24][25]  Mauritania  Oman[23]  Palestine[23][25]  Qatar[23]  Saudi Arabia  Somalia  Sudan[23]  Syria[23]  United Arab Emirates[23]  Yemen
25 March		Slovenia
7 April (Annunciation day)		Armenia (Motherhood and Beauty Day)
First Sunday of May	May 1, 2016 May 7, 2017 May 6, 2018	Angola  Cape Verde  Hungary  Lithuania  Mozambique  Portugal  Romania  Spain
8 May		South Korea (Parents' Day)
10 May		El Salvador  Guatemala  Mexico
Second Sunday of May	May 8, 2016 May 14, 2017 May 13, 2018	Anguilla  Antigua and Barbuda  Aruba  Australia  Austria  Bahamas  Bangladesh  Barbados  Belgium  Belize  Bermuda  Bhutan  Bonaire  Botswana  Brazil  Brunei  Canada  Cambodia  Chile[26]  China[27]  Colombia  Croatia  Cuba[28]  Curaçao  Cyprus  Czech Republic[29]  Denmark  Dominica  Ecuador  Estonia  Ethiopia  Fiji  Finland  Germany  Ghana  Greece  Grenada  Guyana  Honduras  Hong Kong  Iceland  India  Italy  Jamaica  Japan  Kenya  Latvia  Liberia  Liechtenstein  Macau  Malaysia  Malta  Myanmar  Namibia  Netherlands  New Zealand  Pakistan  Papua New Guinea  Peru[30]  Philippines  Puerto Rico  Saint Kitts and Nevis  Saint Lucia  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines  Samoa  Singapore  Sint Maarten  Slovakia[29]  South Africa[31]  Sri Lanka  Suriname   Switzerland  Taiwan  Tanzania  Tonga  Trinidad and Tobago  Turkey  Uganda  Ukraine  United States  Uruguay  Vietnam[21]  Venezuela  Zambia  Zimbabwe
15 May		Paraguay (same day as Día de la Patria)[32]
19 May		Kyrgyzstan (Russian: День матери, Kyrgyz: Энэ күнү)
26 May		Poland (Polish: Dzień Matki)
27 May		Bolivia[16]
Last Sunday of May (sometimes First Sunday of June if the last Sunday of May is Pentecost)	May 29, 2016 May 28, 2017 May 27, 2018	Algeria  Dominican Republic  France[22] (First Sunday of June if Pentecost occurs on this day) French Antilles (First Sunday of June if Pentecost occurs on this day)  Madagascar  Morocco  Haiti[33]  Mauritius  Senegal  Sweden  Tunisia
30 May		Nicaragua[34]
1 June		Mongolia (together with Children's Day)
Second Sunday of June	Jun 12, 2016 Jun 11, 2017 Jun 10, 2018	Luxembourg
First Monday of July	Jul 4, 2016 Jul 3, 2017 Jul 2, 2018	South Sudan
12 August		Thailand (birthday of Queen Sirikit)
15 August (Assumption of Mary)		Costa Rica  Antwerp (Belgium)
Second Monday of October	Oct 10, 2016 Oct 9, 2017 Oct 8, 2018	Malawi
14 October		Belarus (since 1996[35])
Third Sunday of October	Oct 16, 2016 Oct 15, 2017 Oct 21, 2018	Argentina (Día de la Madre)[36]
3 November		Timor Leste
16 November		North Korea[37]
Last Sunday of November		Russia
8 December (Feast of the Immaculate Conception)		Panama[38]
22 December		Indonesia[39]
Hebrew calendars
Occurrence	Equivalent Gregorian dates	Country
Shevat 30	Between 30 January and 1 March- Family Day	Israel[40]
22 May	Mother's Day – new	Israel[40]
Hindu calendars
Occurrence	Equivalent Gregorian dates	Country
Baisakh[41] Amavasya (Mata Tirtha Aunsi[42])	Between 19 April and 19 May 6 May 2016 [41] 26 April 2017	Nepal
Islamic calendars
Occurrence	Equivalent Gregorian dates	Country
20 Jumada al-Thani[n 1]	20 April 2014 10 April 2015 30 March 2016	Iran[43]

Celebration

Mother's Day is celebrated in more than 46 countries throughout the world. On this day, many people pray in churches in honor of mothers, while some gift them presents on this day to express their love. Some may have dinner at home with the family.

One of the most popular ways people celebrate Mother's Day is by giving their mother a card and bouquet of flowers. As it is a holiday, some people prefer to go out for a picnic to celebrate this festival. In schools, kids dedicate poems to their mothers and also perform various roles on this day