Mother’s Day is almost approaching, so update your Google calendars and set your reminders now to prevent forgetting… again.
However, if you live in the UK and have previously experienced a short panic after seeing nice Mother’s Day greetings posted all over social media, only to discover it wasn’t the correct day, you are not alone.
Mother’s Day is observed on a different day in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world.
So, when is Mother’s Day in the UK, and why is it celebrated on a different day in the United States?
Here’s all you need to know.
When is Mother’s Day in the UK?
Mother’s Day in the United Kingdom will be observed on March 19, 2023.
The next year, on March 10, we will celebrate and commemorate amazing mothers/mother figures and beloved loved ones.
This date is shared by just a few nations, including Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man, Ireland, and Nigeria.
Why is Mother’s Day on a different date in the US?
Mother’s Day in the United States is on Sunday, May 14, 2023.
Every year, the date fluctuates drastically in the United Kingdom.
This is because Mothering Sunday started as a religious ritual in the United Kingdom, occurring three weeks before Easter on the fourth Sunday of Lent.
This was the day when Christians would go to their “mother church” – thus the title Mothering Sunday.
Because the dates of Lent and Easter change each year according to the Lunar calendar, so does the date of Mother’s Day.
In other nations, such as the United States, the day is not founded on religious tradition and is simply known as Mother’s Day.
When then-President Woodrow Wilson established the second Sunday in May as a day of “public manifestation of our love and veneration for the mothers of our nation,” it became an official US holiday in 1914.
The movement for a national holiday was launched in 1908 by West Virginia campaigner Anna Jarvis, who wanted a holiday to honour her mother, a community organiser.
The holiday was proposed by suffragist Julia Ward Howe in 1872 as a way to bring women together.
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