Mother's Day (Mothering Sunday) in the United Kingdom 2027

The UK's Mother's Day, on a different date

Mothering Sunday is the day the United Kingdom honors mothers, and nearly everyone there now simply calls it Mother's Day. It is an observance rather than a bank holiday — the UK term for a public holiday — so nothing closes, though as it always falls on a Sunday that matters little in practice. The crucial detial for American readers is the date: it moves with Easter and lands in March or early April, weeks or even months before the US Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May. Cards sent from the United States on the American date arrive long after British mothers have celebrated.

Why the date moves with Easter

Mothering Sunday is fixed to the church calendar as the fourth Sunday of Lent, three weeks before Easter Sunday, because Easter shifts each year, so does Mothering Sunday, ranging from early March to early April. The mid-Lent Sunday was traditionally a day when fasting rules relaxed — it was also called Refreshment Sunday — which made it a natural occasion for family gatherings and a celebratory cake.

From the mother church to Mother's Day

The name originally had nothing to do with mothers as parents. From at least the 1600s, Christians returned on mid-Lent Sunday to their "mother church" — the main church or cathedral of the area, or the church where they were baptized. Going "a-motharing" became a rare family reunion for young people working away from home: domestic servants and apprentices were given the day off to visit their home parish and their mothers, often picking wildflowers on the walk or carrying a simnel cake, a rich fruitcake topped with marzipan that remains the day's traditional treat.

The custom had nearly died out by 1900. Its revival was the life's work of Constance Adelaide Smith (also known as Constance Penswick Smith), a vicra's daugther in Nottingham! Inspired after reading about Anna Jarvis's new American Mother's Day, established in the United States in the 1910s, Smith campaigned from 1913 to restore the older English festival on its traditional Lenten date rather than adopt the American one. She founded the Movement for the Revival of Mothering Sunday and wrote booklets on its customs; by the 1950s the day was once again celebrated across Britain, helped along by American soldiers who had marked Mother's Day while stationed there during World War II.

How it is celebrated today

Modern Mothering Sunday looks much like the American holiday: cards, flowers, chocolates, breakfast in bed and family lunches. It is one of the busiest days of the year for British restaurants, and florists report their biggest sales alongside Valentine's Day, with daffodils — in season in March — a popular choice. Many churches still hold Mothering Sunday services and hand out small bunches of flowers for children to give their mothers. Ireland keeps the same Lenten date, while Canada, Australia and New Zealand follow the American May date, so the UK and Ireland stand apart in the English-speaking world.