Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers worldwide!
Tomorrow is Mother’s Day here in Australia & in many other parts of the world, though sometimes it has other names, such as Mothering Sunday (US).
More countries around the world celebrate Mother’s Day on the 2nd Sunday in May than any other day, many in March on the same days as International Women’s Day, but others have their own dates. Norway’s is on the 2nd Sunday in February, many Middle Eastern countries use 21st March (the spring equinox) and others celebrate the day on the last Sunday of May or for some, including France, the first Sunday of June if the last Sunday of May s Pentecost. ater in the year there are other dates for single countries, for example, the last Sunday of November for Russia.
The modern holiday of Mother’s Day was first celebrated in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother at St Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia. St Andrew’s Methodist Church now holds the International Mother’s Day Shrine. Her campaign to make Mother’s Day a recognized holiday in the United States began in 1905, the year her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, died. Ann Jarvis had been a peace activist who cared for wounded soldiers on both sides of the American Civil War, and created Mother’s Day Work Clubs to address public health issues. Anna Jarvis wanted to honor her mother by continuing the work she started and to set aside a day to honor all mothers because she believed a mother is “the person who has done more for you than anyone in the world”.