10 Fascinating Mother’s Day Facts
Enjoy and share this trivia with the special moms in your lives!
Fun Trivia:
- In what was Yugoslavia, children on Mother’s Day would tie their mothers up, and release them when they had been paid with sweets.
- The word “mother” in most languages starts with the letter “m.” This is because the sound “ma” is one of the first things a baby can vocalize.
- Mother’s Day ranks third for having the highest church attendance, following Christmas and Easter.
- The average age to become a mother in America is about 27 years old.
- More phone calls happen on Mother’s Day than any other day of the year.
Historical Trivia:
- Ann Jarvis wanted to foster friendship between mothers of sons serving on opposite sides during and after the Civil War. In 1868, her committee formed “Mother’s Friendship Day.”
- Anna Reeves Jarvis, the daughter of Ann Jarvis, strove to keep her mother’s legacy alive, and established “Mother’s Day” in 1908 as an intimate day of observance to celebrate mothers.
- President Woodrow Wilson legitimized the holiday in 1914, officially designating the second Sunday of May as “Mother’s Day.”
- As a result of the rapid commercialization of Mother’s Day, Anna Reeves Jarvis worked hard to undo what the holiday became by encouraging boycotts and walkouts.
- Anna Reeves Jarvis used the color of the carnation to signify whether one’s mother was living or not–red/pink meant she was; white meant she wasn’t.

