Mothers Day UK 2027 (Mothering Sunday)

How the date is set

Mothering Sunday (Mother’s Day UK) 2027 is Sunday 7 March 2027. It is always the fourth Sunday of Lent, three weeks before Easter Sunday.

In the UK, Mother’s Day is Mothering Sunday: the fourth Sunday of Lent, three weeks before Easter, so it moves between early March and early April each year. In the United States, Canada, Australia and most other countries, Mother’s Day is the second Sunday of May (10 May 2026 and 9 May 2027), which is why a card, flowers or a phone call timed to the American date will be around two months late for a mother in Britain.

Mothering Sunday is a Christian observance rather than a commercial invention. Its date is fixed by the church calendar, the Church of England still marks it with special services, and it has no single organiser: churches, schools, florists, card shops and restaurants all treat it as a fixed point in the spring calendar. It is not a bank holiday; it falls on a Sunday, and most shops and restaurants open as normal and are busy.

Mothering Sunday is the fourth Sunday of Lent, the forty-day season before Easter. Because Easter Sunday moves, Mothering Sunday moves with it. The Royal Observatory Greenwich explains that Easter falls on the first Sunday after the full Moon that occurs on or after the spring equinox (fixed for this purpose at 21 March), so Easter can be as early as 22 March or as late as 25 April. Count back three Sundays from Easter and you have Mothering Sunday, which can therefore fall anywhere between 1 March and 4 April.

A simple way to find it in any year: take the date of Easter Sunday and subtract 21 days. Easter 2027 is 28 March, so Mothering Sunday is 7 March 2027. Easter 2028 is 16 April, so Mothering Sunday is 26 March 2028. Looking further ahead, with Easter dates checked against the Royal Observatory Greenwich and the Royal Observatory of Belgium:

• 2029: Sunday 11 March 2029 (Easter is 1 April 2029)
• 2030: Sunday 31 March 2030 (Easter is 21 April 2030)

Other movable days in the same stretch of the calendar are Shrove Tuesday (the day before Lent begins) and Good Friday, which, unlike Mothering Sunday, is a bank holiday. The official list of UK bank holidays confirms that Mothering Sunday is not one of them.

History: from the mother church to Mother’s Day

The Church of England traces Mothering Sunday to the sixteenth century, when the day had more to do with church than with mothers. Once a year people made a journey to their “mother” church, which might be their home parish, the nearest cathedral or a major church in a bigger town, and the service there came to symbolise families gathering together. A related custom allowed those working on wealthy farms and estates to have the fourth Sunday of Lent off to visit their mothers, and possibly go to church with them; this is the point at which the day started to become a family occasion.

The choice of Sunday was not accidental. The Church of England’s guidance on Lent notes that the fourth Sunday, known as Laetare or Refreshment Sunday, was allowed as a day of relief from the rigour of Lent, and that these breaks from austerity are the background to the modern observance of Mothering Sunday. A richer meal, a cake and a visit home all fitted a day when the fast was eased.

By the early twentieth century the custom had faded in much of England. Its revival is usually credited to Constance Penswick Smith, a vicar’s daughter from Nottinghamshire, who from 1913 campaigned to restore Mothering Sunday as a Christian festival distinct from the new American Mother’s Day, producing cards, hymns and a 1921 book on the subject. Her work, taken up by churches and schools, is a large part of why the day is still observed in Lent in Britain rather than in May.

Mothering Sunday and the American Mother’s Day

The two days have different origins and are often confused. Mother’s Day in the United States is a secular holiday that grew from Anna Jarvis’s campaign to honour her own mother, first observed in 1908 and made a national day in 1914. It is always the second Sunday of May, and that date has been adopted by Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries.

In the UK and Ireland the names are now used interchangeably: shops advertise “Mother’s Day”, churches say “Mothering Sunday”, and both mean the fourth Sunday of Lent. Anyone with family on the other side of the Atlantic needs to check which calendar applies, and international florists usually list both dates for this reason.

What happens in the UK on Mothering Sunday

Churches hold family services, and in many parishes flowers are blessed during the main service and handed out by children to mothers and other women in the congregation. The Church of England notes that services often include prayers for those who do not find the day easy, such as people who have lost a mother or a child, or who are estranged from family.

At home the day usually means a card, flowers and a Sunday lunch, whether cooked or booked. Daffodils and tulips are the traditional flowers simply because they are in season in March. The traditional food is simnel cake, a light fruit cake with a layer of marzipan baked through the middle and another on top, decorated with eleven marzipan balls for the apostles, Judas being left out. Simnel cake is now more often associated with Easter, but it began as a Mothering Sunday treat carried home on the one day in Lent when it was allowed.

Commercially it is one of the busiest spring weekends for florists, card shops, restaurants and gift retailers, and most campaigns start three to four weeks beforehand.

How to take part

At home. A card, flowers or a shared meal is the whole of the tradition for most families; it does not need to be expensive. Baking a simnel cake, going to a service together, or phoning a mother who lives far away keeps the original idea of a visit home. The day has always included grandmothers, stepmothers, foster mothers and anyone who has done the mothering.

In schools and nurseries. Card-making and a short assembly on the history of the day are the usual activities. Because not every child has a mother at home, many schools now frame the day as a celebration of the people who care for us, and let children choose who receives their card. The “mother church” story gives the day a clear place in RE lessons on Lent and Easter.

In workplaces. Mothering Sunday falls on a Sunday, so most workplace activity is in the preceding week: a reminder in the staff newsletter with the date, a charity collection for a mothers’ or carers’ cause, or flexibility for staff who want to travel to see family that weekend. Retail and hospitality employers should plan for a busy weekend.

Related days

• Father’s Day UK: the third Sunday of June, a fixed rule that does not depend on Easter.
• Mother’s Day (US): the second Sunday of May, observed in the United States and most other countries.
• International Women’s Day: 8 March every year, often within a week or two of Mothering Sunday.