Mother’s day: a day to celebrate the women who mean the most to us, our queens. Some spent the day indulging in a lovely meal out, some presented their mothers with the cards and flowers they spent a little too long picking in the shop and some new mother’s experienced mother’s day for the first time. No matter what you spent the day doing here’s what you may have not known about the special day!

Christian origins (UK and Ireland) - it falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent and traditionally was a day for domestic servants (mostly girls) to get given a day off and visit their mothers. During Lent it was also tradition for families to return to their home or ‘mother’ church and often children would pick flowers for their mothers on the way. Since then the day has been secularised and children usually give cards, presents and gifts to their mother’s.

It is celebrated differently around the world- Most countries around the world including most European countries, U.S, Canada and Australia actually celebrate Mother’s day on the second Sunday in May and their tradition for celebrating varies to the UK and Ireland. Julia Ward Howe and Anna Jarvis are well known most for their key part in establishing the celebration in the U.S. Arab countries on the other hand celebrate it on the 21st of March and it was found to be first celebrated in Egypt, the time of year where blossom because like blossom mothers give new life.

Holds a different meaning when you lose your mum- Shiona Mcallum recently wrote an article on the BBC ‘My first Mother's Day without my mum’ exploring what mother’s day is like for people who have lost their mother’s. One of which is Christie Ford, who recently lost her mother unexpectedly 10 weeks ago. Ford admits to finding it hard to not be able to give her a mum a jokey card (soppy was never the option) and finds social media useful to connect with people similar to her. However what she doesn’t want is people avoiding the subject completely. Sara Bennett from the Balloons charity says "Some will make it a memorial day and celebrate their mum's legacy, others won't want to mark it at all says Sara Bennett from the Balloons charity. 

Whatever you did on Mother's day hopefully you enjoyed it and now know something about the day you didn't know before.