The ancient Greeks observed an annual spring feast dedicated to the mother goddess Rhea. (She was perhaps seen as a model mother because she tricked her husband Cronus, who had the unfortunate habit of swallowing their children, into eating a rock instead of their son Zeus!)

The Romans also celebrated a festival in honor of the mother of the gods – and like many pagan feasts, it was later adopted by the Christian church, which dedicated the entire month of May to Mary, mother of Jesus.

Even today in Spain, Mother’s Day is celebrated on December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception and the most important Marian holy day in the Catholic calendar.

Mother’s Day as we know it in North America dates to the nineteenth century, when an early advocate of women’s rights, Anna Jarvis, organized a protest of the unsanitary conditions faced by women in their communities, and called it “Mother’s Work Day.” Some years later, following the Civil War, Julia Ward Howe (best known as the author of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic”) organized a day on which mothers could rally for peace, having witnessed the heartbreak and hardship experienced by women who lost sons during the war. In 1905, after the death of Anna Jarvis, her daughter continued her campaign to set aside a day to honor mothers and their important contributions. She lobbied influential politicians, and finally in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill enshrining Mother’s Day on the second Sunday of May.

However, Mother’s Day is not solely a North American celebration. In medieval Britain, the spring feast of St. Brigid was set aside as a day to honor mothers, tied to an ancient festival celebrating the first milk of the ewes. Later, Mothering Sunday was observed on the fourth Sunday of Lent, and workers were given time off to visit their mothers, often taking with them small gifts such as cakes.

Though the observance of Mothering Sunday had become rare by the Victorian era, it was revived again in the twentieth-century. In some European countries such as Denmark, Finland, Italy and Belgium, as well as in Turkey and Australia, Mother’s Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May as it is in North America. In France, Mother’s Day is observed on the last Sunday of May.

Over the years, the traditions associated with Mother’s Day developed and flourished. The giving of gifts (particularly flowers), greeting cards, letters and later phone calls became widespread customs. Today more phone calls are made on Mother’s Day than on any other day of the year, and it is also the busiest business day for many restaurants.