1. Mexico

In Mexico, Día de las Madres, or Mother’s Day, is one of the busiest holidays of the year, where restaurants nationwide are packed to the brim with families celebrating their mothers over a special lunch or dinner. It’s common for children to spend Mother’s Day eve at home, and in the morning, they’ll show their love by playing Mexican songs like ‘Las Mananitas’.

2. India

Perhaps no one celebrates Mother’s Day quite like they do in India. Those who are Hindu celebrate mothers and women with a ten-day, nine-night event called Navratri – a festival dedicated to the Divine Feminine. Depending on the region of India, people may spend the festival feasting or fasting, reflecting or dancing.

 

3. France

Historically, on Fête des Mères (Mother’s Day), the French government presented medals to Mother’s with big families to entice them into having more children. That tradition was shaken up in the 1920s, and it’s instead become a day to celebrate mothers and female equality. In the modern world, French families typically celebrate with an intimate family dinner.

 

4. Ethiopia

Mother’s Day in Ethiopia is no low-key affair. At the end of the rainy season, during a three-day celebration known as Antrosht, mothers are celebrated with feasts of lamb or bull, vegetables, and a traditional Ethiopian punch, sourced predominantly by their children as a symbol of their love for their mothers.

 

5. Poland

Dzień Matki, Polish Mother’s Day, is celebrated every year on the 26^th of May, regardless of the day of the week. It’s a tradition for children to gift their mothers unique cards – called laurki – made by hand using natural and paper flowers and write love notes for their mothers inside.

 

6. Thailand

Mother’s Day was only celebrated for the first time in Thailand on 12^th August 1976 – the birthday of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit, the Queen Mother of Thailand. To this day, it’s celebrated on the 12^th of August each year, serving as a national holiday filled with parades and fireworks to honour all mothers, as well as Queen Sirikit. These days, mothers also receive jasmine flowers from their children as a symbol of purity and mother love.

 

7. Peru

Peruvians celebrate Mother’s Day on the second Sunday of May each year. Alongside showering mothers with gifts, they use the celebration to honour mothers, grandmothers, and other remarkable women who are no longer with us. It’s a vibrant gathering filled with socialising, eating, drinking, and decorating their loved ones’ graves with flowers.

 

8. Japan

Like many worldwide, in Japan Mother’s Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in May. Many people gift their mother red carnations as a token of their love, but the tradition that sets them aside from the rest of the world is their arts and crafts. Every year, children in school draw pictures of their mothers around Mother’s Day, with the opportunity to enter their picture into a contest every four years to showcase their photographs to the world.