This Word Means: Mother’s Day

Mother's Day 2025 Meaning: Every day, 500 words on a word (or expression) that has appeared in The Indian Express.

International Mother's Day 2025 History and Significance: Mother's Day can be traced to the United States, particularly activist Anna Jarvis's efforts and her determination to preserve her mother’s memory.

Mother's Day can be traced to the United States, particularly activist Anna Jarvis's efforts and her determination to preserve her mother’s memory.

By: Explained Desk

3 min readNew DelhiMay 11, 2025 01:59 PM IST First published on: May 11, 2025 at 01:18 PM IST

WHY NOW?

The second Sunday of May is celebrated as Mother’s Day in many parts of the world to recognise and celebrate mothers. This year, it falls on May 11.

WHY IS MOTHER’S DAY CELEBRATED?

It can be traced to the United States, particularly activist Anna Jarvis’s efforts and her determination to preserve her mother’s memory.

Her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, worked for causes related to motherhood, such as teaching mothers sanitation to prevent child mortality. She also formed a community of mothers from both sides of the American Civil War (1861-65) to work for peace.

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

BUT WHY IS MOTHER’S DAY CELEBRATED ON A SUNDAY IN MAY?

Jarvis decided to campaign for the cause of Mother’s Day and sought to fix a date close to May 9 — the date of her mother’s passing in 1905. She wrote letters to politicians, businessmen, and church leaders to enlist their support for her cause.

She also wanted the day to be called Mother’s Day and not Mothers’ Day, because she wanted the celebration to honour the individual mother who cares for her family at home.

Following her attempts, some local events were held in 1908. Eventually, US President Woodrow Wilson signed a Bill in 1914 to formally recognise Mother’s Day as an official holiday. It said, “… I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America… do hereby direct the government officials to display the United States flag on all government buildings and do invite the people of the United States to display the flag at their homes or other suitable places on the second Sunday in May as a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.”

Later, as Mother’s Day celebrations often became limited to selling greeting cards and candies, Anna protested bitterly against the commercialisation of the occasion.

Further, some countries have other days for celebrating mothers, such as the British Mothering Sunday. Thailand celebrates Mother’s Day on August 12, the birthday of Queen Mother Sirikit. With the increasing spread of American culture and commercial practices, the May Mother’s Day has gained significance even in countries without such a day in the first place.

IS THERE A FATHER’S DAY, TOO?

Yes. Incidentally, that also involved an American woman who wanted to honour her parent. In 1909, Sonora Smart Dodd was attending a Mother’s Day church sermon. She and her four siblings had been raised by their father, William Jackson Smart, who fought in the US Civil War.

Her great-granddaughter, Betsy Roddy, told the Associated Press in 2017 that the incident “bugged her”. “She thought, ‘Well, why isn’t there a Father’s Day?’” After much campaigning over a long period, US President Richard Nixon issued a proclamation in 1972 for Father’s Day, today celebrated on the third Sunday of June. This was in tribute to Dodd’s requests because her father’s birthday was in June.