9 May 2024
All States Observance holiday | Thursday |
Mothers Day is celebrated across the world, in more than 50 countries, though not all countries celebrate it on the same day. Countries which celebrate Mothers Day on the second Sunday of May include Australia, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Switzerland, Turkey and Belgium. In Mexico and many parts of Latin America, Mothers Day is celebrated on May 10th of each year. In Thailand, it is celebrated on August 12th, the birthday of the current Queen.
Arguably, the tradition of a day to celebrate mothers can be traced back to the times of the ancient Greeks, who held festivities to honour Rhea, the mother of the gods. Early Christians celebrated the fourth Sunday of Lent as a Mothers festival to honour Mary, the mother of Christ. In the UK, the tradition of Mothers Day is now very similar to its American counterpart, but its origins are different, as the day commemorates returning to your mother church on the fourth Sunday in Lent.
The English colonists who settled in America discontinued the tradition of Mothering Sunday, as presumably, it would have been a bit of a trip to return to their mother church for the day. Over the years, Mothers day became increasingly popular and the current traditions of card and gift-giving increased. It is said that the commercialization of the Mothers day angered Anna as she felt that the original sentiment of the day was being sacrificed at the expense of greed and profit.
Mothers Day is now one of the most commercially successful U.S. occasions. According to the National Restaurant Association, Mothers Day is now the most popular day of the year to dine out at a restaurant in the United States. This year, consumers are expected to spend $21.2 billion on Mothers Day, an increase of 5 per cent from last year, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation.