| Year | Date | Day of the week |
|---|---|---|
| 2027 | 28 March 2027 | Sunday |
| 2028 | 16 April 2028 | Sunday |
Mothering Sunday is the British Mother's Day, and it does not fall in May. It is the fourth Sunday of Lent — exactly twenty-one days before Easter Sunday — so it moves each year with Easter and lands somewhere between the beginning of March and the first days of April. Anyone using an American or Australian date will be several weeks out.
The name comes from the old custom of returning to your "mother church" on that Sunday, and from the domestic servants who were given the day off to travel home and visit their families. Simnel cake, marked with eleven marzipan balls, belongs to this Sunday rather than to Easter, and the bunches of wild violets and daffodils picked on the walk home are where the modern flower tradition begins.
Today it looks like breakfast in bed, cards made at school on the Friday before, and lunch somewhere that has been booked since January. It is one of the two heaviest weekends of the year for florists and restaurants in the UK, and card shops start their displays not long after Valentine's Day clears out.
Because the date shifts annually alongside Easter, it is easy to be caught out — this page tracks the correct Sunday for the year it is showing, counting to the midnight that begins the day.
Common questions
When exactly is Mothering Sunday?
The fourth Sunday of Lent, which is twenty-one days before Easter Sunday, so it falls in March or the first days of April.
Is it the same date as Mother's Day in America or Australia?
No. Those fall on the second Sunday of May, usually several weeks after the British date.
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