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Once a year we welcome Mother’s Day, a day to celebrate the mum’s and motherly figures in our lives and recognise all that they do. However, something most people are unfamiliar with is where the special day came from and why there are differences between the UK and US.
Mother’s Day in the UK originated in the 16th-century as ‘Mothering Sunday’ which fell on the fourth Sunday of Lent. Exactly three weeks before Easter, the date ties in with the church calendar which is the reason behind Mother’s Day falling on a different date each year.
In the early years of Mother’s Day, it was tradition to pay your ‘mother church’ a visit, this was either the church you were christened at, your parish church or the nearest Cathedral. During this time, it was common practice for children to leave the home at as young as 10 years old to go off and work, so this provided families with an opportunity to get together again.
This came to be Mothering Sunday in the UK, however, although it is now referred to as Mother’s Day this surprisingly has no connection with the American Mother’s Day.
Mother’s Day in the US is celebrated at a different time of year and has an entirely different history. The idea began thanks to a woman named Anna Jarvis who held a small memorial service for her own mother on 12th May 1907 – who believed a mother is “the person who has done more for you than anyone in the world”.
Following this, it wasn’t long before other places in America were also observing the day. By 1914 the US president had made this a national holiday, taking place on the second Sunday in May. This was met with some backlash from Anna herself, who even campaigned against the government to remove it from the calendar altogether, stating companies were using this as a way to make money off people buying gifts. Despite this, the celebration was firmly here to stay and has been recognised ever since.
Following this, during the Second World War US troops brought the idea of ‘Mother’s Day’ over to the UK. This influence gradually morphed with the traditional ‘Mothering Sunday’ that had been in place since the 16th-century, to become what we know today.
Take a look at our Mothers Day Gift ideas.