When is Mother’s Day 2024? What to know about the holiday and its history

Whether its your own mother or the other important matriarchs in your life, there's always a reason to show them some extra love. And that reason is coming up.

If you're paying attention to the calendar, you might have noticed that Mother's Day is right around the corner, with only a month to plan out the perfect celebration.

Many go to great lengths to show their appreciation for the mother-figures in their life, from personalized presents to dedicated dinners. U.S. consumers spent a record $35.7 billion in Mother's Day-related purchases in 2023, according to an annual survey by the National Retail Federation. But how did this become a larger holiday?

Here's everything you need to know about when to celebrate Mother's Day, as well as the holiday's roots.

When is Mother's Day 2024?

Mother's Day is observed every second Sunday of May, falling on Sunday, May 12.

Who founded Mother's Day? See holiday's origins

According to USA Today reports, Mother's Day in the United States exists in its current form thanks to a Philadelphia woman named Anna Jarvis.

She was the daughter of Ann Reeves Jarvis, a West Virginia woman known for creating the Mothers’ Day Work Clubs, which provided a place for women to learn about child care strategies. During the Civil War, these clubs became a force of reconciliation as wives of both Confederate and Union soldiers came together. 

In May 1908, Anna Jarvis held a service at her late mother's church in West Virginia, meant to honor all mothers' sacrifices. This marked the first official celebration of "Mother's Day."

In the years that followed, Jarvis helped to elevate the holiday through a letter-writing campaign that pushed other states to adopt the observance. By 1914, President Woodrow Wilson had designated it a national holiday. 

It is also noted that Jarvis, in an ironic twist, spent the last year of her life campaigning to abolish the very holiday she founded, upset by the over-commercialization of the holiday. Jarvis launched lawsuits against florists, greeting card manufacturers and other industries before her death in 1948.

What was the original name for Mother's Day?

Before Wilson designated it as an official holiday, different variations of Mother's Day were celebrated throughout the years. 

AZ Central, a USA TODAY Network news site, found one of the earliest instances was "Mother's Friendship Day" in 1868, organized by Ann Reeves Jarvis, the mother of the eventual founder of Mother's Day. Mothers were encouraged to gather with former Union and Confederate soldiers to promote reconciliation.

Just a few years later, in 1870, Julia Ward Howe, a poet and reformer from the Civil War era, called for a "Mother's Day for Peace" to celebrate peace and advocate for the eradication of war.

"We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs," she wrote in the proclamation. Howe campaigned for a “Mother’s Peace Day” to be held each year on June 2 but was unsuccessful. 

Is Mother's Day celebrated on the same date around the world?

While some countries follow the lead of the United States in marking the day on the second Sunday in May, others have their own traditions. 

Over in the United Kingdom, Mother's Day is celebrated on "Mothering Sunday," which falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent. In Mexico, Mother's Day, or Día de las Madres, falls on May 10 every year.

Contributing reporting: Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY