Mother’s Day: Why is the holiday celebrated on different days in the UK, US, Australia and Mexico?

On Sunday March 19, people across the UK celebrate Mother’s Day, also known as Mothering Sunday.

The day is dedicated to mothers and falls on the fourth Sunday of Christian Lent.

It also comes exactly three weeks before Easter Sunday.

But other countries, including the US, Canada, Australia and Mexico, celebrate Mother’s Day on a different date than the UK.

This is unlike most other holidays like Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Halloween, which all fall on the same day around the world.

That’s why Mother’s Day in the UK is celebrated on a different day.

Why do we celebrate Mother’s Day in March in the UK?

In the UK, Mother’s Day takes place on the fourth Sunday of Lent and has traditionally been a day when Christians were encouraged to attend their ‘mother church’.

But over the years, the day became more associated with family gatherings, and children who worked away from home marked the day by returning home to visit their mothers.

Today it resembles the celebration in the US, and its religious roots have been usurped by advertising campaigns encouraging children to shower their mothers with baskets, flowers, cards and gifts.

How did the US start celebrating Mother’s Day in May?

American Mother’s Day has no religious connotations and was officially instituted by President Wilson in 1914 after a campaign was launched by a West Virginian named Anna Jarvis, whose own mother died in May.

Since then it has been held every year on the second Sunday of May in the US and several other countries including Australia. This year, Mother’s Day falls on Sunday May 14, 2023.

After the campaign, President Wilson set the date and declared it a “public expression of our love and respect for the mothers of our country.”

However, Jarvis is said to have disapproved the holiday’s subsequent commercialization, which she felt overtook its sentimental origins. She even said she regrets starting it and eventually tried to scrap it.

When is Mother’s Day in Mexico?

Mexicans celebrate Mother’s Day a little differently than the rest of the world and celebrate it every year on May 10th with the “Día de las Madres”.

The date chosen is believed to have come about in 1922 after a newspaper editor, Rafael Alducin, wrote an article for the Mexico City newspaper, El Excelsior, Promote the benefits of Mother’s Day celebrations and encourage others to participate in Mexico.

The US tradition had already started to spread in the Central American country, but the article was supported by a media campaign and the Catholic Church urged Mexicans to choose their own date to celebrate the day, which ended up being May 10 .

As in other countries, people celebrate it by giving large bouquets of flowers to their mothers and holding family celebrations.