History of Mothers Day
Mothers Day today is a chance to say thank you for with cards, flowers and gifts
for all the little and big things our Mums have done for us throughout our
lives. Mothers Day has become a blend of two older celebrations, a religious
day known as 'Mothering Sunday' and an American celebration known as 'Mothers
Day’.
In the UK we celebrate Mothers Day on the fourth Sunday in Lent, which is
Mothering Sunday, but we have adopted the American secular traditions of
celebrating with presents.
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Mothering Sunday
Mothering Sunday was very much a religious celebration dating back hundreds of
years and was traditionally a day that domestic servants were given off work
once a year to return home to the birth towns and visit their ‘mother’ church
during Lent. Of course this holiday and the chance to reunite the family meant
it was also a time of celebration particularly as in Victorian times children
would often work away from home from the age of 10. The tradition of flowers
grew out of children returning home with gifts of flowers picked from the
hedgerows and the Simnell or traditional Mothering Sunday cake also came to be
a part of the family celebrations.
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Mothers Day in the USA
The American celebration of Mothers Day is all about showing
appreciation for Mum's hard work. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson decreed
that the second Sunday in May each year should be a day honoring Mothers. It is
a celebration that starts with children making mothers day cards in primary
school and is maintained the world over as a day for spoiling our mums
with gifts in later life. Whilst not everyone celebrates Fathers Day and
Grandparents day, most countries around the world have a day of the year when
they recognize how much they owe their mums.
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Mothers Day round the World
Mothers Day celebrations have different traditions and different dates in
different countries but a lot of them have grown out of the American
celebration on the second Sunday in May and for this reason are celebrated on
the same day. See below for a list of Mothers’ Day dates for 2008 from around
the world.
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10th February (2nd Sunday in February)
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Norway |
2nd March (4th Sunday of Lent)
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United Kingdom |
| 4th May (1st Sunday in May) |
South Africa |
| 10th May |
Mexico
Bahrain
Hong Kong
India
Malaysia
Mexico
Oman
Pakistan
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
United Arab Emirates
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| 13th May |
International Mothers Day |
| 11th May (2nd Sunday in May) |
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Denmark
Finland
Germany
Holland
Italy
Japan
New Zealand
Switzerland
Turkey
United States
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| 25th May (last Sunday in May) |
France
Sweden
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| 12th October (2nd Sunday in October) |
Argentina
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