Mother’s Day 2024 is approaching. But like every year, an oddity sows confusion about the real date of the event.
Mother’s Day is probably the annual event we regret missing the most. Paying homage to your mother, even when you don’t really adhere to the principles of this very commercial celebration, remains a gesture that is difficult to forget. And when forgetting happens, it’s always quite guilt-inducing. But the date of Mother’s Day, in 2024 like in previous years, is a more sensitive subject than you think. She finds herself at the center of growing confusion from year to year, due to multiple dates circulating on social media.
In the United States, where the tradition of celebrating mothers is even stronger, every year more stars come to greet their mothers or the mothers of their children, with messages of love and heart-shaped emojis. or flowers. Last year, Justin Timberlake was, for example, one of those who had expressed their love with the most verve on Instagram: “I hope you know every day how much you’ve taught me and how much I love you. Happy birthday mothers, mom. Thank you for loving me along the way.” His publication was added to dozens of videos, texts, poignant images, posted by Jeremy Renner, Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Orlando Bloom, Beyoncé and many others.
Very often, these tender declarations have a rather disturbing side effect in France: upon seeing this surge on social networks, French fans of American stars are very often panicked, thinking that they themselves have forgotten the date of Mother’s Day. . It must be said that in the United States, Mother’s Day is not set on the same date as in France. Since 1908, it has been celebrated on the second Sunday in May across the Atlantic, while in France, it is celebrated on the last Sunday in May (except Pentecost weekend).
To make matters worse, right next to us and in French in the text, Belgium is aligned with the United States, and Mother’s Day is celebrated there on the same day, i.e. from mid-May. The same is true for several neighbors such as Germany, Switzerland, or Denmark. A not really convenient synchronization… France, for its part, resists again and again and keeps “its” date of Mother’s Day, which it set at the end of the First World War, and engraved in stone in 1950, mainly so as not to conflict with the celebration of Joan of Arc which also takes place in May. England, as usual, follows a completely different tradition, celebrating mothers on the fourth Sunday of Lent, a legacy from the 16th century when it was an opportunity for children to visit their church. childhood with their mother.
Let it be said: if the date of Mother’s Day 2024 has been set for May 12 this year in the United States, don’t rush to a florist or to your phone at the first message spotted on the Internet. Don’t panic: in France, mothers will be celebrated on May 26 this year, two weeks later.
