Mother’s Day is one of those occasions where the date changes every year – so when will it be in 2022?
Whether you are organising an afternoon tea, treating your mum to a spa pamper session or just planning to send flowers and chocolates, it’s important to remember this special day.
It’s always on a Sunday but moves around the calendar from year to year so it’s easy to get caught out.
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When is Mother’s Day 2022?
In 2022, Mother’s Day will fall on Sunday, March 27.
It began as Mothering Sunday, which was a Christian celebration that originated in the 16th century.
In the UK, that was the fourth Sunday of Lent, which depends on Easter. Once the date of Easter has been worked out then the dates of Lent, Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day), Ash Wednesday and Mother’s Day can all be allocated in the calendar.
Mother’s Day always comes three weeks before Easter Sunday.
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In bygone times, simnel cake – a light fruit cake decorated with 12 marzipan balls to represent Jesus and the apostles (with the exception of Judas) – was made for Mothering Sunday as a break from the fasting of Lent.
People also returned to their mother church – the main church or cathedral in the area. It’s said the services often focused on Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Household servants were given the day off to attend the service with their family.
However, this religious tradition had started to fade by the early 20th century.
And then, during the Second World War, when American and British troops lived and fought alongside each other, the UK’s Mothering Sunday took on the name of the USA’s Mother’s Day and they gradually merged into the same kind of celebration.
The US version is on a separate date because it originated in a different way and is nothing to do with UK’s old Mothering Sunday.
America’s Mother’s Day was started by a prominent churchgoer called Anna Jarvis, who came up with the idea at a Sunday school lesson in 1876 and held the first one as a memorial ceremony for her late mother in 1908.
She trademarked the phrase Mother’s Day in 1912 and then campaigned to make this an officially recognised annual event.
It was declared a national holiday in 1914 by President Woodrow Wilson and is held on the second Sunday in May every year.
Although the UK has adopted America’s emphasis on the celebration of mothers and taken the name of the occasion, it has kept the calendar date of the old Mothering Sunday.
There are different dates in other countries, right through the year from the first Sunday of February in Kosovo to December 22 in Indonesia.
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