This year, Mother's Day is celebrated on Thursday, June 4. Usually celebrated on the last Sunday of May, it will take place this year on the first weekend of June because of Pentecost, which fell this year on May 29.
Indeed, in 1950, then-President Vincent Auriol promulgated a law stating that the two events cannot fall on the same day: "Mother's Day is fixed on the last Sunday of May; if that date coincides with Pentecost, Mother's Day falls on the first Sunday in June."
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If the date varies between the last Sunday of May and the first Sunday of June, it is a law specific to the France which provides that "the French Republic officially pays tribute each year to French mothers during a day dedicated to the celebration of Mother's Day".
In many other countries, Mother's Day has already happened. This is the case, for example, in the United States, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Germany and several dozen other countries where it took place on May 14. In these countries, mothers are traditionally honored on the second Sunday of May.
The second Sunday of May, an American trend
It was Americans who established the second weekend of May as the most common "Mother's Day" in the world. It was more specifically Anna Jarvis, an American activist, who led this initiative before it was enshrined in law in 1914 by the President at the time, Woodrow Wilson.
For the record, the fact that this simple celebration to thank the work of mothers quickly became a commercial holiday greatly displeased its creator.
3/7 In the United States, it was Anna Jarvis who pioneered the idea of Mother's Day in 1908, in honor of her own deceased mother. She wanted people to take the time to thank their mother for everything she did for them. pic.twitter.com/iRxCI4OICu
— Thread Mania FR (@thread_mania) May 14, 2023
Subsequently, many European countries took up this date because, at the end of the First World War, American soldiers and Americans from organizations providing relief to occupied populations celebrated this holiday, which spread among European soldiers.
Already paying tribute to Joan of Arc on the second Sunday of May, the France decided not to follow this American trend.