Mother's Day: Celebrations and History
Every year, Mother's Day is celebrated in Ukraine on the second Sunday of May. In 2025, this holiday falls on May 11.
Mother's Day is recognized in many countries, though the dates vary. In Poland, for example, it is celebrated on the same second Sunday of May, while in France, the day falls on the last Saturday of May. Traditionally, children honor their mothers with flowers, cards, and heartfelt messages.
The Historical Background of Mother's Day
The origins of this day can be traced back to the 20th century. Prior to that, several American activists attempted to establish Mother's Day, but their efforts remained unnoticed, and the holiday did not become established in calendars.
In the 19th century, activist Ann Jarvis Reeves, who had 13 children with her husband, of whom only four survived, fought against unsanitary conditions contributing to epidemics. Throughout her life, she worked to improve public health and organized Mother's Day events in workers' clubs to enhance sanitary standards. The clubs she founded raised funds for medicine and support for families facing severe health issues.
After Ann's death, her daughter Anna established the modern Mother's Day in 1907 as a tribute to her mother's work. Anna Jarvis's story is documented by history professor Catherine Lane Antolini from West Virginia. According to her, Jarvis's persistence led to success, and in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson declared the second Sunday in May a national holiday in honor of all American mothers.
Jarvis spent decades promoting Mother's Day while protecting it from commercialization.
"In America, this holiday has indeed become quite commercialized, – emphasizes history professor Martha Homyak. – To me, it is not about the tangible gifts that are important in public life. It is a personal day that arose from personal pain".
Mother's Day in Ukraine
According to a presidential decree from 1999, Mother's Day is celebrated annually in Ukraine on the second Sunday of May.
The initiators of re-establishing Mother's Day in Ukraine were members of the "Union of Ukrainian Women" from Galicia. In the 1930s, they organized concerts, conferences, and festivals to discuss the role of motherhood in society and wrote articles for Ukrainian and international newspapers.
In 1939, Mother's Day was abolished in the USSR, and Ukrainians fought for its revival for over fifty years.
"Ukraine during the gray Soviet life needed holidays that emphasized not statehood but the existence of some other, familiar environment", – says Bohachevska-Homyak.
Efforts by the "Union of Ukrainian Women", the international organization "Women's Community", and the Women's Union of Ukraine led to the holiday being reinstated at the state level in Ukraine in 1999. May was chosen intentionally; in Christian faith, it is the month of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Catholic Church dedicates it to the Virgin Mary.
