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132 free Mother's Day trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
64 free Mother's Day trivia questions with answers. Whether you are planning a Mother's Day brunch, a baby shower game or just want to see how much you really know about the women who raised us, this mom trivia quiz has you covered. Fifty questions span the surprising history of Mother's Day, famous mothers from history and pop culture, and the very different ways families honour mothers around the world. The questions run from easy warm-ups to a few genuinely tricky ones, so it works for a family game night as well as a serious quizzer. Every answer has been checked against a primary source, so you can host with confidence and settle any arguments at the table.
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Q 01Woodrow Wilson signed Mother's Day into a national holiday in what year?
1914
Wilson's proclamation fixed it on the second Sunday in May, six years after the first church service in 1908.
Q 02Which woman is credited as the founder of the modern Mother's Day holiday in the United States?
Anna Jarvis
She built the campaign around her own mother, who had wished aloud for such a day in a Sunday school lesson in 1876.
Q 03Which Egyptian journalist introduced Mother's Day to the Arab world?
Mustafa Amin
Mustafa Amin floated the idea in his 1943 book Smiling America; Egypt first marked the day in 1956, and other Arab countries followed.
Q 04Which flower was chosen in 1907 as the official symbol of Mother's Day?
Carnation
White was meant to stand for the purity of a mother's love.
Q 05Wilson's Mother's Day proclamation asked Americans to display what?
The national flag
The national flag: the joint resolution Wilson proclaimed asked that the flag be flown on government buildings and homes as a public expression of love and reverence for the nation's mothers.
Q 06Traditionally, what does wearing a white flower on the day signify?
That one's mother has died
A white flower signifies that one's mother has died, a coloured one that she is living; florists pushed the colour code partly because white carnations kept selling out.
Q 07In which year did the United States issue its first Mother's Day postage stamp?
1934
1934: the three-cent stamp issued on 2 May 1934 adapted Whistler's Mother, adding a vase of carnations in the corner.
Q 08How did the holiday's founder feel about it by the 1940s?
She petitioned to have it rescinded
Anna Jarvis petitioned to have it rescinded after decades of fighting its commercialisation; in 1944 she was placed in a Pennsylvania sanitarium, where she died in 1948.
Q 09Critics of how commercial Mother's Day became file it under which dismissive label?
A Hallmark Holiday
A Hallmark Holiday is the charge, yet the commercialisation may be exactly what kept the day alive while Children's Day and Temperance Sunday faded.
Q 10In Japan the day was first kept as the birthday of which empress?
Kōjun
Kōjun: from 1931 Japan marked the day on 6 March, the birthday of Empress Kōjun, consort of Emperor Shōwa; the second Sunday in May was adopted in 1949.
Q 11What is the name of the multi-day Ethiopian celebration that honors motherhood?
Antrosht
Antrosht is a three-day Ethiopian family feast held in autumn once the rains end, when children return home to cook a large meal and sing for their mothers.
Q 12On which Sunday in May does the U.S. celebrate Mother's Day?
Second Sunday
Mother's Day in the United States falls on the second Sunday in May each year, meaning it can land on any date between May 8 and May 14.
Q 13What is Mother's Day called in France?
La Fête des Mères
La Fête des Mères: a law of 24 May 1950 made it official, obliging the Republic to pay homage to French mothers on the last Sunday of May.
Q 21Russia celebrates Mother's Day on the last Sunday of which month?
November
November: a 1998 decree by President Boris Yeltsin set Russia's Mother's Day on the last Sunday of November.
Q 22Where does Mother's Day rank among card-sending holidays in the United States?
Third
Third: by Hallmark's count Mother's Day trails only Christmas and Valentine's Day, with well over 100 million cards exchanged each year.
Q 23In which state was the founder of the American Mother's Day born?
West Virginia
She was the ninth of eleven children, seven of whom died in infancy or early childhood.
Q 14In Mexico, what song do mariachi bands traditionally play for mothers on the morning of Mother's Day?
Las Mañanitas
Las Mañanitas, the traditional Mexican birthday song, is sung to mothers by mariachi bands on the morning of Mother's Day.
Q 15On what fixed date does Mexico celebrate Mother's Day each year?
May 10
May 10: Mexico first celebrated Mother's Day on 10 May 1922, promoted by a Mexico City newspaper with backing from Álvaro Obregón's government.
Q 16What is the British equivalent of Mother's Day called?
Mothering Sunday
Mothering Sunday was originally unrelated to the American holiday; the British day is fixed to the church calendar, not to May.
Q 17The British mothers' day falls on the fourth Sunday of which season?
Lent
Because it is tied to Easter, the date moves between early March and early April.
Q 18Which marzipan-topped fruit loaf is traditional for Britain's mid-Lent Sunday?
Simnel cake
Simnel cake, a light fruit cake topped with marzipan, is traditional for Mothering Sunday, a mid-Lent reprieve from fasting; its eleven marzipan balls represent the apostles minus Judas.
Q 19Julia Ward Howe's 1870 "Mother's Day Proclamation" was primarily a call for what?
International peace
International peace: Howe's 1870 appeal, written after the bloodshed of the Civil War and amid a new European war, urged women to unite against war, and she promoted an annual Mothers' Peace Day in the 1870s.
Q 20Which ancient civilization held a spring festival honoring Cybele, a mother goddess?
Roman
Historians of the modern holiday are firm that it grew from none of these older observances.
Q 24What did the holiday's founder insist about the apostrophe in its name?
It belongs before the s
It belongs before the s: Jarvis wanted 'Mother's Day' as a singular possessive, each family honouring its own mother, and she trademarked that spelling.
Q 25Which industries quietly paid the founder's sanitarium bills?
Florists and card makers
Florists and card makers: people from the floral and greeting-card trades paid for her care at the Marshall Square Sanitarium, the very businesses she had spent her fortune fighting.
Q 26Which country marks Mother's Day as a public holiday on 16 November?
North Korea
Russia, by contrast, inherited a March celebration of International Women's Day from the Soviet Union.
Q 27On what date do most Arab countries celebrate Mother's Day?
March 21
March 21, the first day of spring: Egypt first marked the day in 1956 and most Arab countries adopted the same date.
Q 28Which country wrote its Mother's Day into law in 1927 under Hernando Siles Reyes?
Bolivia
The date chosen commemorates a battle in which women fought.
Q 29What did Ann Jarvis organise in 1868, three years after the Civil War?
Mother's Friendship Day
Mother's Friendship Day: in 1868 Ann Jarvis brought together families from the Union and Confederate sides in West Virginia to promote reconciliation after the war.
Q 30Anna Jarvis said a printed Mother's Day card proved its sender was what?
Too lazy to write a letter
Too lazy to write a letter: Jarvis complained that a printed card meant only that the sender was too lazy to write to the woman who had done more for them than anyone in the world.