Mother’s Day is celebrated every year in Canada on the second Sunday of May, which in 2021 falls on the 9th of May. Although Mother’s Day is not a public holiday, it still has an important place in many people’s hearts, providing them with a chance to thank their mother and other mothering figures in their family. 

When Did Mother’s Day Originate?

Mother’s Day, as we know it today, is a fairly recent phenomenon; however, celebrations honoring motherly figures can be traced back to the ancient Greeks. During their spring-time festival, the ancient Greeks honored many deities, including Rhea, Cronus’s wife and mother of many important divine figures. 

The modern Mother’s Day that we celebrate today has a much more recent origin and was first celebrated in 1908 by a US woman named Anna Jarvis. Anna Jarvis began the movement as a tribute to her mother, Anna, who had long expressed a desire for a memorial mother’s day, alongside the suffragette activist Julia Ward Howe. 

“I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mother’s day commemorating her for the matchless service she renders to humanity in every field of life. She is entitled to it.”

— Ann Reeves Jarvis

By 1914, all U.S states were observing Mother’s Day, and in the 1920s, card manufacturers and other companies got on board and began selling greeting cards and gifts to coincide. 

Why Is Mother’s Day Different Around The World?

Along with many others, Canada has adopted the US Mother’s Day holiday; however, some countries celebrate Mother’s Day on an entirely different day. In the UK, Mother’s Day is referred to as Mothering Sunday and always falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent, which for 2021 is the 14th of March. Elsewhere in the world, Mother’s Day is celebrated in conjunction with International Women’s Day on the 8th Of March or on dates that coincide with other religious holidays.

Mother’s Day Controversy 

While Anna Jarvis was campaigning to have Mother’s Day recognized as a holiday, she teamed up with florists and even recommended that a white carnation be used as the symbolic flower of Mother’s Day. Unfortunately, over time, florists, card makers, and other businesses began to lose sight of what Mother’s Day was really about and instead used the holiday to bolster their profits. From 1920 onward, Anna Jarvis started fighting to preserve the integrity of Mother’s Day, even lobbying to have the holiday removed from the calendar of national holidays in an attempt to prevent businesses from using the name of Mother’s Day in vain. 

How To Celebrate Mother’s Day Today

Today, Mother’s Day is a grand holiday and can be celebrated however you see fit. For some people, this may mean buying a Mother’s Day card or a bunch of Mother’s Day flowers, but for others, it could mean making a more affordable DIY Mother’s Day gift or baking a Mother’s Day cake. At the end of the day, despite the commercialization of Mother’s Day, the holiday remains an important reminder of the sacrifices that mothers make for their children and the importance of motherly figures in our lives.