Many countries around the globe celebrate Mother's Day on the second Sunday of May, but not all of them. We went to our sources to find out why.
Let's start in the United Kingdom with what's known as Mothering Sunday. The holiday falls on the fourth Sunday in Lent, which was March 10 this year. The tradition goes back to the Middle Ages when people who had moved away for work would return to their mother church and their mothers on that Sunday.
In Mexico, the holiday was the brainchild of a journalist back in 1922. Rafael Alducin was the father of the newspaper Excelsior and pushed in an editorial to make May 10 a day to honor those who gave us life. May is also important because the Catholic Church honors the Virgin Mary during the month.
Next, we go to Egypt where the first celebrations of motherhood date back to the time of the pharaohs. In modern times, the holiday is again credited to a journalist: Mustafa Amin. He wrote about the American tradition of Mother's Day in a 1943 book and advocated for celebrating it in Egypt. He was successful and Mother's Day is now celebrated on March 21 and the beginning of the spring equinox.
In Thailand, National Mother's Day is celebrated on August 12, which also happens to be the birthday of Queen Sirikit.
Here in the U.S., Mother's Day became an official holiday thanks to Anna Jarvis from Philadelphia. After her mother's death, she held a memorial service in her honor on May 12, 1907. Jarvis went on to campaign to make the second Sunday in may a holiday to honor all mothers, and she was very convincing. By 1914, President Woodrow Wilson had signed off and Mother's Day was celebrated in all 50 states and Canada. Today, it also includes more than 90 countries.