Mother's Day Countdown

Breakfast in bed, handmade cards, and the busiest phone day of the year.

How many days until Mother's Day?

Live countdown to Mother's Day 2027

About Mother's Day

Mother’s Day honors mothers and mother figures. In the US it is the second Sunday of May; the date shifts yearly because it is anchored to Sunday, not the calendar date.

The story behind Mother's Day

The woman who founded Mother's Day spent her life fighting it. Anna Jarvis held the first official celebration in 1908 at a church in West Virginia, honoring her own mother's dream of a day for mothers. By 1914 President Wilson had made it national — and Jarvis watched in horror as florists, card makers and candy companies took over. She spent her remaining wealth and years campaigning to abolish the holiday she created, and died childless and penniless in 1948.

The white carnation was the original flower — her mother's favorite. Wearing a red carnation honored a living mother; a white one, a mother who had passed. The flower industry loved the idea so much that prices for carnations famously spiked every May.

The "mother of Mother's Day" in the UK is different: "Mothering Sunday" falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent, born from a 16th-century tradition of servants returning to their home or "mother" church — and picking wildflowers on the way.

Mother's Day dates 2027–2030

Mother's Day facts

• Mother's Day falls on the second Sunday of May in the US and dozens of other countries.
• It became an official US holiday in 1914, thanks to Anna Jarvis's campaign — who later spent her life fighting its commercialization.
• More phone calls are made on Mother's Day than any other day of the year.
• Carnations are the traditional flower: red for a living mother, white for one who has passed.