Mother’s Day – Around the world, throughout the year

Mother’s Day in the UK is coming up. Rather later than usual, it will be celebrated on 30 March this year. In the UK, the day moves as it falls on the 4th Sunday in Lent, being originally a church holiday: servants were given the day off to visit their home (‘mothering’) church where they had spent their childhood or got baptised and visit their families. Over time, this tradition became Mother’s Day in the UK, however, you will still hear many people, especially active Christians, call the day by its traditional name, ‘Mothering Sunday’.

Germany celebrates Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in May, the same as the US and most other countries around the world that celebrate it. This is the day nominated by the United Nations, and its origins go back to West Virginia resident Anna Jarvis, who started campaigning for a day to celebrate mothers in 1907 to commemorate her own late mother who had wished for such a day. In 1911, her campaign was finally successful with the day being recognised in every state.

Some of the ex-Eastern bloc countries and ex-Soviet republics, such as Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria and Russia, but also Vietnam, celebrate Mother’s Day on International Women’s Day, which is on 8 March every year. In fact, East Germany celebrated it then too, though as the name implies, ALL women were included, not just mothers. They got the day off (as every adult was in full-time employment) to do housework – so not such a celebration after all (unless you like this sort of thing).

Other notable exceptions of the date due to their own traditions include Poland (26 May), some North African and Gulf states (21 March), France, Sweden and some African and Caribbean countries (last Sunday in May), Thailand (12 August – the birthday of their queen), with the earliest in the year being Norway (second Sunday in February) and the latest Malawi (15 October).

It is said that we have Australian Janet Heyden to thank for starting the tradition of gift-giving on Mother’s Day. Luckily, sending flowers to one’s mum on the other side of the globe is no issue any more thanks to online ordering services and local delivery and gifts should also arrive on time (provided you have remembered to send them early enough) but ironically, for me, Mother’s Day cards presented a logistical challenge for years as they are only available seasonally here and were gone by the time it was Mother’s Day in Germany. I ended up buying one early (it could have been worse if it had been the other way around!) and then online card companies who let you design the card yourself made that easy too.

Our family usually spends the day somewhere I haven’t been yet because I like to explore new places and on Mother’s Day I get to choose where we go: a stately home, a seaside town, a historic venue. If I’m lucky, it’s a beautiful sunny spring day with plenty of spring flowers in bloom, even though the air is still a bit chilly. I haven’t decided on this year’s day out but I shall report back.