Mother's Day - Dates Around The World

Dates Around The World

As the American holiday was adopted by other countries and cultures, the date was changed to fit already existing celebrations honoring motherhood, such as Mothering Sunday in the United Kingdom or, in Greece, the Orthodox celebration of the presentation of Jesus Christ to the temple (2 February). Mothering Sunday is often referred to as "Mother's Day" even though it is an unrelated celebration.

In some countries the date was changed to one that was significant to the majority religion, such as Virgin Mary day in Catholic countries. Other countries selected a date with historical significance, such as Bolivia using the date of a battle where women participated. See the "International history and tradition" section for the complete list.

Communists countries usually celebrated the socialist International Women's Day instead of the more capitalist Mother's Day, for example in the former East Germany. Some ex-communists countries still follow this custom, like Russia, or simply celebrate both holidays, like Ukraine.

Note: Countries that celebrate the International Women's Day instead of Mother's Day are marked with a dagger "†".

Gregorian calendar
Occurrence	Dates	Country
Second Sunday of February	Feb 13, 2011 Feb 12, 2012 Feb 10, 2013	Norway
3 March		Georgia
8 March		Afghanistan Albania Kosovo Armenia†	Azerbaijan† Belarus† Bosnia and Herzegovina†	Bulgaria† Kazakhstan† Laos	Macedonia† Republic of Moldova Montenegro†	Russia† Slovenia† Serbia† Tajikistan† Vietnam†*
Fourth Sunday in Lent	Apr 3, 2011 Mar 18, 2012 Mar 10, 2013	Ireland Nigeria	United Kingdom
21 March (vernal equinox)		Bahrain Egypt Iraq Jordan Kuwait	Libya Lebanon Oman Palestinian territories	Qatar Saudi Arabia Sudan Syria	United Arab Emirates Yemen (all Arab countries in general)
25 March		Slovenia
7 April		Armenia
First Sunday in May	May 1, 2011 May 6, 2012 May 5, 2013	Hungary Lithuania	Mozambique Portugal	Romania Spain
8 May		South Korea (Parents' Day)
10 May		El Salvador Guatemala	Mexico Belize
Second Sunday of May	May 8, 2011 May 13, 2012 May 12, 2013	Anguilla Aruba Australia Austria Bahamas Bangladesh Barbados Belgium Bermuda Bonaire Botswana Brazil Brunei	Canada Cambodia Chile People's Republic of China† Colombia Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark	Dominica Ecuador Estonia Ethiopia Fiji Finland Germany Gold Coast Greece Grenada Guyana Honduras Hong Kong Iceland India	Italy Jamaica Japan Kurdistan Latvia Liberia Liechtenstein Macao Malaysia Malta Burma Netherlands New Zealand Pakistan Papua New Guinea Peru	Philippines Puerto Rico Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa Singapore Sint Maarten Slovakia South Africa Sri Lanka Suriname	Switzerland Taiwan Tanganyika Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Turkey Uganda Ukraine United States Uruguay Vietnam Venezuela Zambia Zimbabwe
15 May		Paraguay (same day as Día de la Patria)
26 May		Poland "Dzień Matki"
27 May		Bolivia
Last Sunday of May (sometimes first Sunday of June if it's Pentecost)	May 29, 2011 May 27, 2012 May 26, 2013	Algeria Dominican Republic	France (First Sunday of June if Pentecost occurs on this day) French Antilles (First Sunday of June if Pentecost occurs on this day) Morocco	Haiti Mauritius	Sweden Tunisia
30 May		Nicaragua
1 June		Mongolia† (Mothers' and Children's Day.)
Second Sunday of June	Jun 12, 2011 Jun 10, 2012 Jun 9, 2013	Luxembourg
Last Sunday of June	Jun 26, 2011 Jun 24, 2012 Jun 30, 2013	Kenya
12 August		Thailand (birthday of Queen Sirikit)
15 August (Assumption of Mary)		Costa Rica Antwerp (Belgium)
Second Monday of October	Oct 10, 2011 Oct 8, 2012 Oct 14, 2013	Malawi
14 October		Belarus
Third Sunday of October	Oct 16, 2011 Oct 21, 2012 Oct 20, 2013	Argentina (Día de la Madre)
Last Sunday of November	Nov 27, 2011 Nov 25, 2012 Nov 24, 2013	Russia
3 November		Timor Leste
8 December (Feast of the Immaculate Conception)		Panama
22 December		Indonesia
Other calendars
Occurrence	Equivalent Gregorian dates	Country
Shevat 30	Between 30 January and 1 March	Israel
Baisakh Amavasya (Mata Tirtha Aunsi)	Between 19 and 29 April	Nepal
20 Jumada al-thani	24 May 2011 12 May 2012	Iran

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