Why is Mother’s Day celebrated on the second Sunday in May?

“When is the Mothers Day this year?”. You’ve probably heard that phrase at some point and the reason for this is because the commemorative date doesn’t have a fixed day like other annual celebrations. The only rule is that the celebration takes place on the second Sunday of May. However, it was not always like this.

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The date dedicated to mothers came about when the North American Anna Jarvis lost his mother Ann Marie Reeves Jarvisin 1905. Decided to honor the matriarch, the young woman started a campaign with her friends to show the importance of the mother figure to children and adolescents within the Methodist church he attended, in Grafton, West Virginia.

The movement created by Anna was so great that, three years later, she managed to call the attention of the governor at the time, William E. Glasscock, with a service in honor of mothers held by the church at her encouragement. In 1910, the representative established that April 26 was to be dedicated to mothers in Virginia.

Just as Anna encouraged William, he urged other governors to do the same in the years to come. The biggest reach happened when the president of the United States at the time, Woodrow Wilson, also decided to celebrate the date in the country with a day specifically fixed by Anna: the famous second Sunday of May. The date was made official in 1914 and gained international commotion from then on.

Mother’s Day in Brazil

As it happened in the USA, in Brazil the celebration started in a specific place: the Young Men’s Association of Porto Alegre, in 1918. However, as happened with Labor Day, here the date only started to be celebrated in the same way that it happened in the United States when Getulio Vargas officially instituted – in 1932.