Mother's Day 2027

An observance, not a day off

Mother's Day in the United States falls on the second Sunday in May. It is a national observance established by congressional resolution and presidential proclamation, not a federal or state holiday, so it never closes anything on its own. Because it always lands on a Sunday, post offices, banks, government offices and the stock market are closed anyway for the weekend, and normal schedules resmue Monday. The practical effects show up elsewhere: it is one of the busiest days of the year for restaurants and one of the biggest weeks for florists and greeting card selers.

Why the second Sunday in May

The date traces to Anna Jarvis of West Virginia, whose mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, died on May 9, 1905, the second Sunday of that May. Anna held the first memorial services on May 10, 1908, again the second Sunday, and campaigned for that Sunday each May to be set aside nationally - congress and President Woodrow Wilson adopted her choice in 1914. Because the observance is tied to a Sunday rather than a date, it shifts each year between May 8 and May 14 and never needs an observed-date rule.

From work clubs to a national day

Ann Reeves Jarvis organized Mothers' Day Work Clubs in western Virginia, now West Virginia, before the Civil War to fight disaese and improve sanitasion, and after the war promoted a Mothers' Friendship Day to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors. In 1870 the writer and activist Julia Ward Howe issued an appeal calling on mothers to unite for peace, and pushed a June observance for years. The modern holiday, though, grew from Anna Jarvis's campaign to honor her own mother. The first official services were held on May 10, 1908, at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia, now the International Mother's Day Shrine, and at a Wanamaker's department store auditorium in Philadelphia, where Jarvis lived, west Virginia recognized the day in 1910, other states quickly followed, and in May 1914 Congress designated the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day. President Wilson issued the first proclamation on May 9, 1914, calling for public expression of love and reverence for mothers.

Jarvis made the white carnation, her mother's favorite flower, the day's emblem, and an early custom spread of wearing a colored carnation for a living mother and a white one in memory of one who had died. She later turned fiercely against the holiday's commercialization, denouncing the card, candy and florist industries and spending much of her later life and savings fighting the celebration she had created. She died in 1948.

How Americans celebrate

Cards, flowers, phone calls and a family meal remain the core traditions. Brunch reservations are often booked out weeks ahead, churches honor mothers at Sunday services, and the shrine in Grafton holds an annual commemoration. Schools often have children make cards and gifts in the preceding week.

Mother's Day in other countries

Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries celebrate on the same second Sunday in May. The United Kingdom and Ireland instead observe Mothering Sunday on the fourth Sunday of Lent, a date tied to Easter that usually falls in March.