10 Mother’s Day facts and figures

10 Mother’s Day facts and figures

It’s that time of year when we prepare to give thanks to that special woman in our lives, without whom none of us would exist, our mums. This Sunday, 26th March, is Mother’s Day, but how did this celebration of maternal love come about? Here are some facts and figures you may, or may not, have known about this special day…

  1. Unlike many countries, Mother’s Day in the UK is always on the fourth Sunday in Lent, meaning it’s on a different date each year.
  2. We’ve been celebrating Mother’s Day as far back as the Ancient Greeks, who celebrated the Mother of the Gods, Rhea, at an annual Spring festival, by eating and drinking the finest food and wine.
  3. In the US, Anna Jarvis is credited as being the “mother” of modern day Mother’s Day. When her own mother died, she set about campaigning for a day to honour mothers. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation designating the second Sunday in May as a national day to honour mothers.
  4. The same Anna Jarvis also campaigned against Mother’s Day years later when she became jaded by the commercialisation of the day, which she felt had become more about profit than sentiment.
  5. On that subject, according to the British Retail Consortium, 30 million cards are sent in the UK on Mother’s Day at a cost of £45 million!
  6. And did you know, us Brits spend twice as much on Mother’s Day as we do on the Father equivalent?
  7. In nearly all countries and all languages, the word “mother” or “mum” begins with the letter “m”.
  8. The oldest woman in the world to give birth was Rajo Devi from India, who had her first child at 70 in 2008.
  9. According to records, the world’s most prolific mother was a Russian woman called Mrs Vassilyev who produced 69 children! She gave birth to sixteen pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets between 1725 and 1765, in a total of 27 births. Sixty-seven of the 69 children born were said to have survived infancy. Imagine the cards and flowers on Mother’s Day!
  10. And speaking of flowers, according to the Flowers & Plants Association, Mother’s Day is the biggest event in the UK’s cut flower and indoor plant industry, with sales of cut flowers and indoor plants increasing by an average of 40 per cent on a normal day’s trading.

https://www.serenataflowers.com/pollennation/need-know-mothers-day/

http://www.sykescottages.co.uk/blog/ten-fun-facts-for-mothering-sunday/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother’s_Day

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