The next Mother's Day is Sunday, May 9, 2027. That's 196 days from today, and the date follows a 1914 joint resolution of Congress that settled on the second Sunday in May.
Mother's Day 2027:
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196days to go.
Time left until 12:00 AM on May 9:
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Mother's Day falls on the second Sunday of May.
46.2% of the time since Mother's Day 2026 has gone by
Mother's Day falls on the second Sunday of May. It is always a Sunday between May 8 and May 14, so the date changes every year.
Year
Date
Days away
2027
196 days
2028
567 days
2029
931 days
2030
1,295 days
2031
1,659 days
When is Mother’s Day 2027?
Federal law puts it in one line: “The second Sunday in May is Mother’s Day.” That is 36 U.S.C. 117, which makes Sunday, May 9, 2027, the next one. A second Sunday can fall no earlier than May 8 and no later than May 14, so that week holds every possible date.
Within the week, the Mother’s Day date slides one day earlier each year, or two days after a February 29, and jumps forward a week when it would drop below May 8. That is how May 9 in 2027 becomes May 14 in 2028.
Father’s Day follows exactly five or six weeks later: six when Mother’s Day is May 8, 9 or 10, and five when it is May 11 to 14. The Father’s Day countdown runs to the third Sunday in June.
From a church in Grafton to Congress
Anna Jarvis began her campaign after her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, died on May 9, 1905. Her mother had organized Mothers’ Day Work Clubs against poor health and sanitation in their West Virginia community. She had also told her Sunday school class she hoped someone would one day set aside a day for mothers. On May 10, 1908, Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia, held the first official Mother’s Day service. The church is now the International Mother’s Day Shrine.
Jarvis wore a white carnation, her mother’s favorite flower, and gave 500 of them to honor the mothers of the Andrews congregation. By April 27, 1911, the Weekly Florists’ Review was urging florists to sell white flowers for mothers who had died and bright ones for living mothers, much to Jarvis’s displeasure.
The national observance came together over three days in May 1914:
Date
What happened
Friday, May 8, 1914
Congress approves a joint resolution “designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day”
Saturday, May 9, 1914
President Woodrow Wilson signs the Mother’s Day proclamation
Sunday, May 10, 1914
The first national Mother’s Day
Wilson’s proclamation, now at the National Archives, directed officials to fly the flag on all government buildings. It invited everyone else to fly one at home “as a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.”
Both requests survive in 36 U.S.C. 117, and the U.S. Flag Code (4 U.S.C. 6) still names Mother’s Day among the days to display the flag.
Why Anna Jarvis turned against Mother’s Day
The Library of Congress calls Jarvis a victim of her movement’s success. She spent much of the rest of her life protesting the commercial side of the holiday, first against florists and later in protests that led to arrests for public disturbances. She even criticized first lady Eleanor Roosevelt for using the day to promote the health of women and children, the cause her own mother had worked for. Jarvis died in 1948.
Frequently asked questions
Is Mother's Day a federal holiday?
No. Congress made it a national observance in 36 U.S.C. 117, but the holiday schedule for federal workers in 5 U.S.C. 6103 leaves it out. Because it is always a Sunday, no one gets a weekday off for it.
Is Mother's Day on the same date in England?
No. England's Mothering Sunday is the fourth Sunday of Lent in the Church of England calendar, three weeks before Easter, so it lands between March 1 and April 4.