About Mother's Day
At a glance
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Mother’s Day is always the second Sunday in May.
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Mother’s Day is the third-largest card-sending holiday in the United States, with 113 million cards exchanged annually.
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Almost 85% of adult men and women celebrate Mother’s Day.
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Mother’s Day is the largest card-sending holiday for the Hispanic community. Depending on the country, Mother’s Day is celebrated on many different days throughout the year.
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Mother’s Day is the second most popular holiday for gift-giving, following Christmas.
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Hallmark began creating and producing Mother’s Day cards in the early 1920s.
Holiday history
Celebrated on May 11, 2025 in the U.S.
Anna M. Jarvis, born in 1864 in Webster, West Va., is credited as the force behind Mother’s Day. When Jarvis was 41 years old, her mother died. On the second anniversary of her mother’s death, Jarvis made public her plans to establish a day to honor mothers. On the third anniversary (the second Sunday in May 1908), “mother’s day” church services were held in Grafton, W. Va., and a celebration of mothers was held at the Wanamaker Store Auditorium in Philadelphia, Pa.
The observance became official in 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation naming the second Sunday of May as a day for “public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.” 2014 marked the 100th anniversary of Mother’s Day.