When was the first Mother’s Day celebrated?

It is difficult to put a precise date on the first time that Mother’s Day was celebrated. This is because there have been many iterations of this festival throughout the ages.

In Ancient Greece, there were festivals celebrating mothers, especially Demeter who was a goddess of fertility. These ceremonies often blended the honoring of human motherhood with a celebration of the earth’s fertility in general.

Later, medieval Christians used to hold floral ceremonies celebrating the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ. It has been argued that these ceremonies also absorbed elements from Ancient Greek or pagan fertility rituals.

In the renaissance, a festival known as Mothering Sunday was created. This annual celebration was still related to the Virgin Mary, but it soon became focused more and more on human mothers.

Nowadays, though it is derived from a rich and varied religious tradition, Mothering Sunday is more of a secular celebration, focusing on giving cards, flowers and gifts to our mothers without needing to think about religion.