When Is Mother's Day?

The dominant international date on the second Sunday of May originates in the United States. Following the bereavement of her mother Ann Reeves Jarvis in 1905, Anna Jarvis launched a dedicated campaign to establish a holiday honouring mothers’ personal sacrifices. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a joint congressional resolution designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. Through American cultural and commercial influence during the twentieth century, this May formula was adopted across Canada, Australia, Japan, China, Taiwan and dozens of other nations.

The British tradition, known as Mothering Sunday, is entirely independent and centuries older. Dating to at least the sixteenth century, it falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday, precisely three weeks before Easter Sunday). Domestic servants and apprentices were traditionally granted a day off to return home, visit their baptismal “mother church”, and reunite with their biological mothers, bringing simnel cakes and spring flowers. Because Easter is calculated using astronomical full moons, Mothering Sunday moves every year across March, sitting between six and nine weeks earlier than the American May date.

Thailand provides the clearest example of a calendar anchored to national leadership. Prior to 1976, Thai Mother’s Day was held on 15 April. The government then formally shifted the observance to 12 August to honor the birthday of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit, Queen Mother of Thailand, widely revered as the maternal heart of the kingdom. It is a full statutory public holiday nationwide: government ministries, public institutions, and commercial banks shut their doors. Blue flags, portraits of the Queen Mother, and fragrant white jasmine flowers (mali) line cities across the nation, and when 12 August falls on a weekend, the law mandates a substitute holiday on the following Monday.

Other nations enshrine distinct dates through domestic statute. In South Korea, Mother’s Day was established on 8 May 1956, but in 1973 was broadened into Parents’ Day (어버이날, Eobeoinal) to honour both fathers and mothers equally; it is a national commemoration day rather than a work closure. Mexico fixed 10 May (Día de la Madre) in 1922, celebrating it with family serenades (Las Mañanitas) regardless of which day of the week it lands on. In France, Article L215-1 of the Code of Social Action and Families designates the last Sunday of May as Fête des mères, stipulating that if Pentecost (Pentecôte) falls on that same Sunday, Mother’s Day automatically shifts to the first Sunday of June.

A widespread search query across the globe is “is Mother’s Day a public holiday?” In North America, Europe, Australia, China and Japan, the answer under the law is no. Because Mother’s Day is almost universally scheduled on a Sunday, the general workforce is already on their regular weekly rest period. No federal or statutory overtime premiums apply, stock exchanges and private enterprises maintain their usual Sunday operations, and schools do not observe any weekday holiday. The holiday is deeply cultural and commercially significant—ranking alongside Valentine’s Day and Christmas for florist, card and restaurant revenues—without being a legal day off.

The prominent exception in our calendar dataset is Thailand. Under Thai ministerial regulations and official royal gazettes, 12 August is gazetted as a full national holiday. When 12 August falls on a Saturday or Sunday (as occurs on Saturday 12 August 2028), the government gazettes Monday 14 August as an official substitute public holiday (วันหยุดชดเชย), creating a three-day national long weekend for both public servants and private-sector workers governed by the Labour Protection Act. When planning international travel, business meetings or bank transactions, Thailand is the one country where Mother’s Day causes complete financial and administrative closure.