Latin American Mother's Day in 2025

When is Mother's Day in Mexico?

In Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala, Mother’s Day is celebrated on May 10th each year.

Areas with large Mexican communities in the United States, such as California and New Mexico may celebrate Mother's Day today, rather than on the second Sunday in May.

Traditions of Mother's Day in Mexico

The tradition of Mother's Day (Día de las Madres) first began on May 10th 1922 when Rafael Alducin, editor of the Mexico City newspaper El Excelsior, wrote an article advocating the celebration of Mother’s Day across Mexico. Though by that time, the American tradition had spread to parts of Mexico, the article supported by a media campaign and the Catholic Church led to the holiday becoming widely observed, with May 10th becoming the accepted date of Mother's Day in Mexico.

According to a custom in Mexico, sons and daughters come to the family home on the day before Mother's Day. Then the custom is to wake mother on May 10th with the traditional song "Las Mañanitas", either a cappella or with the help of a mariachi or a band, usually hired months before.

As in America, it is a tradition in Mexico to send gifts of flowers and cards to mothers, and May 10th is one of the busiest days for restaurants in Mexico and many businesses allow employees to leave at midday.

If May 10th falls during the week, schools often organize Mother's Day activities so that the children can sing songs to their mothers.

The date and traditions of Mexican Mothers' Day have now spread southward to other Latin American countries.

Early History of Mother's Day

Mother's Day is celebrated across the world, in more than 50 countries, though not all countries celebrate it on the same day.

Arguably, the tradition of a day to celebrate mothers can be traced back to the times of the ancient Greeks, who held festivities to honor Rhea, the mother of the gods.

Early Christians celebrated the fourth Sunday of Lent as a Mother's festival to honor Mary, the mother of Christ.

In the UK, the tradition of Mother's Day is now very similar to its American counterpart, but its origins are different, as the day commemorates returning to your mother church on the fourth Sunday in Lent.

The English colonists who settled in America discontinued the tradition of Mothering Sunday, as presumably, it would have been a bit of a trip to return to their mother church for the day.