What are the origins of Mother’s Day around the world?
Mother’s Day. A day for thanking mothers across the world for all they do for their children.
Around the globe, it is celebrated on different days ranging from February to December.
In many countries, its success is commercially driven, with businesses taking inspiration from the United States, the pioneers of Mother’s Day as a money maker.
This being said, the origins of the celebration, for some, are rooted in religion or history. Here’s a breakdown of dates and from where the tradition first started.
USA
The US celebrates Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in May.
In its present form, Anna Jarvis held the first Mother’s Day in honour of her late mother on May 10, 1908, in West Virginia.
Jarvis then campaigned to establish Mother’s Day first as a US national holiday and then later as an international holiday. It was officially declared as a holiday by the state of West Virginia in 1910, with other states quickly following suit.
Many countries across the world follow the US and celebrate on this day, including the below:
UK
Residents in the UK celebrate “Mothering Sunday” on the fourth Sunday of Lent (March 11 in 2018).
The holiday originated from the church — most historians believe that it evolved from the 16th-century Christian practice of visiting mothers on the fourth Sunday in the season of Lent (Laetare Sunday).
The efforts of merchants, who saw a great commercial opportunity in the festival, made the celebration became popular again in the whole of the UK in the 1950s.
Some former British colonies also follow in this tradition, such as Nigeria, as well as the self-governing dependencies of the United Kingdom Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Read more