Mother’s Day is celebrated across the globe, but its roots, dates, and customs vary enormously from country to country. Far from being a single invention exported worldwide, the honoring of mothers draws on ancient religious rites, wartime grief, feminist activism, and centuries-old folk traditions. Here is a detailed journey through the origins of how different cultures came to celebrate motherhood.
The Ancient Roots: Greece and Rome
Long before the modern holiday existed, the ancient world held festivals in honor of mother goddesses that laid a cultural foundation for later traditions.
In ancient Greece, a spring festival called Hilaria was held in honor of Cybele, the Phrygian mother goddess who the Greeks adopted as Meter (Great Mother). Worshippers traveled to her temple with offerings of flowers, food, and incense. The festival, held in late March, was a joyous celebration of fertility, renewal, and the protective power of the mother figure.
The Romans held a similar festival called Matronalia, celebrated on the first of March in honor of Juno Lucina, goddess of childbirth and protector of women. On this day, husbands gave gifts to their wives, children honored their mothers, and mistresses gave slaves the day off — an unusually egalitarian gesture for the ancient world.
These festivals did not survive into the medieval Christian era directly, but they planted the deep cultural seed that motherhood deserved ritual recognition.
The United Kingdom: Mothering Sunday
One of the oldest surviving forerunners of the modern holiday is the British Mothering Sunday, which dates to at least the 16th century and has its origins firmly in the Christian liturgical calendar.
Mothering Sunday falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent — roughly the midpoint of the fasting season — and was originally a day when Christians were encouraged to return to their “mother church”: the main cathedral or parish church of the region where they had been baptised. The occasion was called “going a-mothering.”
Over time, the religious observance evolved a social dimension. Domestic servants and apprentices, who often lived far from home, were given the day off to visit their families. Young workers would pick wildflowers along the way to bring to their mothers, and a special cake called the Simnel cake — a rich fruit cake with marzipan layers — became the traditional gift.
By the Victorian era, Mothering Sunday had faded somewhat as industrialisation broke up traditional community structures. It was revived in the 20th century, partly under the influence of the American Mother’s Day movement, though it retained its distinct Lenten timing and its own customs.
The United States: Anna Jarvis and the Modern Holiday
The most globally influential version of Mother’s Day was born in the United States in the early 20th century, and it has a surprisingly specific origin: a single determined woman named Anna Jarvis.
Anna’s mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, had been a peace activist during and after the American Civil War. In the 1860s, Ann organised “Mothers’ Friendship Days” in West Virginia to bring together Union and Confederate families, and she had long spoken of the need for a day to honour mothers. She died in May 1905.
Her daughter Anna was devastated and resolved to fulfil what she believed was her mother’s dream. On May 10, 1908 — the second anniversary of her mother’s death — Anna organised two memorial ceremonies: one in Grafton, West Virginia, and one in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She handed out white carnations, her mother’s favourite flower, as a symbol of purity and maternal love.
Anna then began a tireless letter-writing campaign to politicians, businessmen, and clergymen across the country, lobbying for an official national holiday. Her campaign succeeded: in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day — a federal holiday.
The story has a bitter coda. Anna Jarvis spent the rest of her life fighting the very commercialisation she had inadvertently unleashed. She was appalled by the greeting card and flower industries’ exploitation of the holiday, sued companies for misusing the name “Mother’s Day,” and died in 1948 — penniless and brokenhearted — reportedly saying she was sorry she had ever started it.
Mexico and Latin America: El Día de las Madres
In Mexico, Mother’s Day (El Día de las Madres) is celebrated on a fixed date: May 10, regardless of what day of the week it falls on. It is one of the most important and emotionally charged holidays in the Mexican calendar.
The date was established in 1922, largely through the campaign of journalist Rafael Alducin, who was inspired by the American holiday but chose a fixed date to give it a firmer national identity. The Catholic Church’s strong influence in Mexico meant the day quickly took on spiritual dimensions as well, with masses held in mothers’ honor.
The celebration is deeply familial and highly expressive. Mariachi bands are hired to serenade mothers at dawn, families gather for large meals, and schools hold elaborate ceremonies where children perform songs and recite poems. The emotional intensity of Mexican Mother’s Day — often described as even more heartfelt than Christmas — reflects the profound centrality of the mother figure (la madre) in Latin American culture.
Most of Central and South America follows similar traditions, with May 10 or the second Sunday in May observed across countries including Colombia, Honduras, and El Salvador.
Ethiopia: Antrosht
Ethiopia has its own ancient multi-day harvest festival called Antrosht, which falls in autumn (typically in November or early December) and has long served as the Ethiopian equivalent of Mother’s Day.
Antrosht is tied to the end of the rainy season and the gathering of the harvest. Children who have been away — working, studying, or living in other villages — return home bearing food: daughters traditionally bring ingredients like vegetables, cheese, and butter, while sons bring meat. The family gathers to cook and eat together, and mothers are honored with songs and dances.
The celebration is communal and joyful, rooted in the agricultural rhythms of Ethiopian life rather than commercial exchange. It predates any Western influence and represents one of the most organically developed forms of maternal honor found anywhere in the world.
Arab World: A Journalist’s Campaign
In the Arab world, Mother’s Day is widely celebrated on March 21 — the first day of spring. Its origin is traced directly to an Egyptian journalist named Mustafa Amin.
In 1943, Amin visited an elderly widow who told him about her loneliness and how her sons had neglected her after starting their own families. Moved by the encounter, he began writing columns calling for a dedicated day to honor mothers. He campaigned for years before the idea took hold, and in 1956, Egypt officially adopted March 21 as Mother’s Day.
The date spread rapidly across the Arabic-speaking world — including Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Sudan — partly because spring’s associations with new life and renewal made it a natural fit for a celebration of motherhood. Today in many of these countries, Mother’s Day is a significant national occasion with school events, family gatherings, and widespread media coverage.
Yugoslavia (Former) and the Balkans: Materice
In the Western Balkans — particularly among Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian traditions — there is an old folk observance called Materice (Mothers’ Day), which predates any modern influence and is rooted in pre-Christian agrarian custom.
Materice falls on the second Sunday before Christmas in the Advent period. On this day, children would sneak into their mother’s room early in the morning and bind her feet with a rope or scarf while she slept. She could only be “freed” by giving the children gifts, sweets, or treats. The playful ritual symbolised both the children’s dependence on their mother and the idea that her love and abundance could be coaxed into flowing more freely.
A similar custom, Očići (Fathers’ Day), follows a week later, and the two together form part of an old Slavic pre-Christmas celebratory cycle. Though largely folkloric today, Materice is still observed in some rural communities.
The United Kingdom Again: The Suffragette Influence
A largely overlooked chapter in Mother’s Day history is the role of Julia Ward Howe, an American poet and suffragette who in 1870 wrote a passionate “Mother’s Day Proclamation” calling on mothers to rise up against war and demand peace. Howe had been horrified by the Franco-Prussian War and later by the American Civil War’s toll, and she envisioned Mother’s Day as a day of political activism — a demand by mothers everywhere that their sons not be sent to slaughter.
Howe organised Mother’s Day peace gatherings in Boston and several other cities throughout the 1870s, but the observances faded after about a decade. Her vision of the day as feminist and pacifist was almost entirely eclipsed by Anna Jarvis’s later, more sentimental campaign — but it represents a fascinating alternative origin in the anglophone world.
Nepal: Mata Tirtha Aunsi
In Nepal, Mother’s Day is called Mata Tirtha Aunsi and is celebrated on the new moon of the Nepalese month of Baisakh (typically in April or May). Its origins are ancient, rooted in Hindu scripture and mythology.
According to Nepalese legend, a young man once went to bathe at a sacred pond called Mata Tirtha (Mother’s Pilgrimage) and saw a vision of his deceased mother in the water. The story gave the site its name and its association with honoring mothers, both living and dead.
On this day, Nepalese people visit the Mata Tirtha pond near Kathmandu for ritual bathing and prayer. Those whose mothers are alive bring them gifts of sweets and clothes. Those whose mothers have died offer flowers and food to the water in remembrance. The dual nature of the celebration — honoring both the living and the dead — gives it a depth and solemnity absent from many Western versions of the holiday.
Japan: Carnations and Post-War Revival
Japan’s Haha no Hi (Mother’s Day) is celebrated on the second Sunday in May, borrowed directly from the American model after World War II. However, Japan had earlier, independent precedents.
In the 1930s, Japanese Christians observed Mother’s Day on August 12 to mark the birthday of Empress Kojun (the mother of Emperor Hirohito), giving it an imperial and nationalistic character. After Japan’s defeat in 1945, this version was abandoned, and the American-style May holiday was adopted during the U.S. occupation as part of broader democratising reforms.
Today, Haha no Hi is widely observed across Japan. Children give their mothers red carnations (following the Anna Jarvis tradition), and handmade cards and drawings from young children are considered the most treasured gifts. Department stores run major promotional campaigns, and family meals are a central part of the day.
Indonesia: A National Heroine’s Legacy
In Indonesia, Mother’s Day (Hari Ibu) is celebrated on December 22, a date connected not to any religious festival but to a specific moment in the country’s nationalist history.
On December 22, 1928, the First Indonesian Women’s Congress was held in Yogyakarta — a landmark gathering of women’s organisations from across the Dutch colonial archipelago who united to campaign for independence, women’s rights, and education. The congress is considered a foundational moment in Indonesian feminism and nationalism.
President Sukarno declared December 22 as Hari Ibu in 1953, framing it not just as a celebration of domestic motherhood but as a commemoration of women’s role in building the nation. The day has a civic and historical character that distinguishes it from the more sentimental Western holiday.
Scandinavia: The Second Sunday in May
The Scandinavian countries — Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland — adopted Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in May under American influence in the early 20th century, though each country has given the day its own local flavour.
In Sweden, the holiday was first suggested by American-Swedish writer Cecilia Bååth-Holmberg in 1919, and it was taken up as an official observance in the 1920s. The Swedish Red Cross quickly became involved, selling paper flowers to raise funds — a tradition that continues today, making the artificial flower a recognisably Swedish Mother’s Day symbol.
In Norway, the holiday has been observed since the 1920s and is often marked by children bringing breakfast in bed to their mothers — a tradition shared across much of northern Europe.
One Holiday, Many Histories
What emerges from a global survey of Mother’s Day is that the impulse to honor mothers is universal, but its expression is always local. Whether rooted in ancient goddess worship, Christian liturgical calendars, feminist peace activism, agrarian harvest festivals, or nationalist politics, each tradition reflects what a particular culture values most deeply about motherhood — and about the relationship between generations. The commercial veneer that coats much of the modern holiday is, in many ways, a thin layer over something much older, stranger, and more meaningful.