151 Fun Facts About Mother's Day

Which president made Mother's Day a US holiday in 1914?

Woodrow Wilson signed the proclamation in May 1914, a day after Congress passed the resolution and only a few years after senators had mocked the idea.

Which woman is credited as the founder of the modern Mother's Day holiday in the United States?

Anna Jarvis built the campaign around her own mother, Ann, who had prayed aloud in an 1876 Sunday school class that someone would found such a day.

Which Egyptian journalist introduced Mother's Day to the Arab world?

Mustafa Amin floated the idea in his 1943 book Smiling America; Egypt first marked the day in 1956, and other Arab countries followed.

Which flower did the founder of Mother's Day choose as its emblem?

Carnation: she wanted a single white one worn as a badge, but florists drove up the price until she urged people to stop buying flowers at all.

The 1914 presidential proclamation of Mother's Day asked Americans to display what?

The national flag: the 1914 resolution asked for it to be flown on government buildings and homes as a public expression of love and reverence for the nation's mothers.

Traditionally, what does wearing a white flower on Mother's Day signify?

That one's mother has died; a coloured flower means she is living. Florists promoted the colour code when white blooms ran short.

Which photographer took 'Migrant Mother', the 1936 portrait that came to symbolise the Great Depression?

Dorothea Lange's subject stayed anonymous until 1978, when a Modesto newspaper identified her as Florence Owens Thompson, and she made plain that she resented the famous picture.

Where did Mother's Day's founder stand on it by the 1940s?

She petitioned to have it rescinded: after decades fighting its commercialisation, she went door to door in Philadelphia collecting signatures against her own holiday.

Critics of how commercial Mother's Day became file it under which dismissive label?

A Hallmark Holiday: the card maker began selling Mother's Day cards in the early 1920s, and the day's own founder spent years denouncing the trade.

Japan first kept Mother's Day in 1931 on the birthday of the wife of which emperor?

Hirohito: a national women's federation set the day on 6 March, the birthday of his wife Empress Kōjun, and after the war Japan moved it to the American date in May.

In Greek legend, which hero's mother, Thetis, dipped him in the River Styx to make him invulnerable?

Achilles: in the later legend Thetis held her baby by the heel as she dipped him, leaving the one spot where an arrow could kill him.

On which Sunday in May does the U.S. celebrate Mother's Day?

Second Sunday: its founder claimed legal rights over the phrase 'Second Sunday in May' and threatened to sue anyone who traded on it without her permission.

What is Mother's Day called in France?

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.

In Mexico, what song do mariachi bands traditionally play for mothers on the morning of Mother's Day?

Las Mañanitas is Mexico's birthday song, sung early in the morning to wake the person being honoured, so many mothers start their day to a serenade at the door.

Which reptile mother gently rolls her eggs in her mouth to help her babies hatch?

Crocodile: this fearsome predator is a careful parent, and a Nile crocodile stands guard over her nest until the eggs hatch, where most reptiles lay and leave.

What is the British equivalent of Mother's Day called?

Mothering Sunday was originally unrelated to the American holiday; the British day is fixed to the church calendar, not to May.

The British mothers' day falls on the fourth Sunday of which season?

Lent: because the season is counted back from Easter, the British day moves each year, anywhere from early March to early April.

Which marzipan-topped fruit cake is the traditional bake for Mother's Day in Britain?

Simnel cake: its eleven marzipan balls stand for the apostles, with Judas left out.

Julia Ward Howe's 1870 "Mother's Day Proclamation" was primarily a call for what?

International peace: Howe's 1870 appeal asked mothers of all nations to unite against war, and she campaigned through the 1870s for an annual Mothers' Peace Day.

In Greek myth, which goddess, the Earth itself, was the mother of the Titans?

Gaia bore the Titans to the sky god Uranus, then armed her son Cronus with a sickle to overthrow him.

Which Russian president created an official Mother's Day in 1998?

Boris Yeltsin signed the decree in January 1998, setting the day on the last Sunday of November in order to raise the standing of motherhood in Russian society.

Which US holiday ranks just above Mother's Day for cards sent in the 2020s?

Valentine's Day: the card trade's own counts put it second and Mother's Day third, although the founder of Mother's Day campaigned against printed cards.

In which state was the founder of the American Mother's Day born?

West Virginia: though she had moved to Philadelphia, she had the first Mother's Day service held back home in Grafton, where her late mother had taught Sunday school.

What did the holiday's founder insist about the apostrophe in its name?

It belongs before the s: she wanted a singular possessive, a day for each family to honour its own mother, not a plural covering all the mothers in the world.

Which industries are said to have quietly paid for the care of Mother's Day's founder in her final years?

Florists and card makers are said to have covered the cost, the very trades she had fought, though her biographer has never been able to confirm the story.

Which country made 16 November Mother's Day in 2012, marking a 1961 speech by its founding leader?

North Korea: the date recalls a 1961 national meeting of mothers, where Kim Il Sung spoke on their duty in bringing up the next generation.

Most Arab countries celebrate Mother's Day on the first day of which season?

Spring: an Egyptian newspaper campaign won the day, which Egypt first marked on 21 March 1956, and other Arab countries copied the date.

Which country wrote its Mother's Day into law in 1927 under Hernando Siles Reyes?

The date chosen commemorates a battle in which women fought.

The mother of Mother's Day's founder held an 1868 Mothers' Friendship Day to reconcile which groups?

Union and Confederate veterans and their families gathered with local mothers, by most accounts, in a county where neighbours had fought on opposite sides, and the mothers' clubs she ran are credited with easing the enmity.

The founder of Mother's Day said a printed card for the day proved its sender was what?

Too lazy to write a letter: she 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.

For what was Mother's Day's founder once arrested?

Disturbing the peace at a protest: she was trying to stop the American War Mothers selling flowers to raise funds on her holiday.

Which goddess, the mother of Zeus, did the ancient Greeks honour as mother of the gods?

Rhea saved the infant Zeus from Cronus, who swallowed each of his other offspring, by handing him a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes instead.

Which ancient festival honoured the mother goddess Cybele at the March equinox?

Hilaria: Rome's Day of Joy for Cybele came at the March equinox, straight after a Day of Blood spent mourning her consort Attis.

How many white flowers did the founder of Mother's Day send to its first service in 1908?

500: she sent them to the church in Grafton for everyone attending, yet she skipped the service herself and spoke in Philadelphia that afternoon.

In Peter Pan, who do the Lost Boys beg to be their mother?

Wendy: the boys kneel and plead 'O Wendy lady, be our mother', and she agrees although, as she tells them, she is only a little girl.

In several Balkan and Eastern European countries, Mother's Day on March 8 coincides with which observance?

International Women's Day: 8 March doubles as Mother's Day in countries such as Albania and Bulgaria, whereas Georgia created a separate 3 March Mother's Day in 1991.

If Pentecost falls on the last Sunday in May, what does France do with its mothers' day?

Switzerland has a similar rule, but pushes the day a week later instead.

Why did France originally establish a national day honoring mothers?

To push up the birth rate: after the First World War's losses, France's official day for mothers of large families was a pro-natalist measure honouring women with many children.

Which Australian mammal is one of the few whose mothers lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young?

Platypus: the mother lays her eggs in a sealed burrow, and the hatchlings suckle milk from two furry patches on her belly.

Britain's mothers' day began with medieval worshippers returning each year to which 'mother'?

Their mother church, by the usual account: people went back each year to the main church of their home district, and visits to their own mothers grew out of the trip.

What famous song is Julia Ward Howe best known for writing, aside from her Mother's Day Proclamation?

The Battle Hymn of the Republic: Howe wrote the words in November 1861 after hearing Union soldiers sing 'John Brown's Body', and set her verses to its tune.

Which Philadelphia department-store owner bankrolled the campaign to create Mother's Day?

John Wanamaker hosted a Mother's Day gathering in his store's auditorium on 10 May 1908, the same day as the first church service.

Which describes the founder of Mother's Day?

Childless: unmarried all her life, she poured her time and inheritance into founding the holiday and then policing how it was used.

Which queen was mother to both Richard the Lionheart and King John?

Eleanor of Aquitaine was locked up by her husband Henry II for backing their sons' revolt and freed only when Richard became king in 1189; she then governed England while he was on crusade.

In which animated film does a princess's bargain with a witch turn her mother into a bear?

Brave: Merida wants a spell to change her mother's mind about an arranged marriage, and the two must mend their bond to undo it.

In The Tale of Peter Rabbit, whose garden does Peter's mother warn him to stay out of?

Mr. McGregor's: Mrs Rabbit reminds her brood that their father was put in a pie there, yet Peter runs straight to the garden and squeezes under the gate.

Who keeps an emperor penguin's single egg warm while the mother feeds at sea?

The father keeps the egg warm for about two months of Antarctic winter without eating, until the mother returns from the sea.

Which Brazilian president made Mother's Day official by decree in 1932?

Getúlio Vargas made the day official in 1932 at the request of Brazilian feminists, months after his new electoral code gave women the vote.

In Star Wars, who is the mother of the twins Luke and Leia?

Padmé Amidala dies moments after naming the twins, who are then hidden from Darth Vader on separate planets.

Which US president personally sketched the first Mother's Day postage stamp?

Franklin D. Roosevelt, a keen stamp collector, sketched a design based on Whistler's Mother, but the holiday's own founder objected to the stamp when she saw it.

The founder of Mother's Day likened those cashing in on it to which insects?

Termites: she branded them 'charlatans, bandits, pirates, racketeers, kidnappers' and termites that would undermine her movement with their greed.

Serbia's Materice, a mothers' day, falls two Sundays before which feast?

Christmas: on Materice, two Sundays before Orthodox Christmas, the young tie up their mother until she pays a ransom of sweets and small gifts.

Armenia's 7 April motherhood day falls on which Christian feast?

Annunciation: the feast recalls the angel telling Mary she would become a mother, and Armenia keeps it as its Day of Motherhood and Beauty.

Which southern-hemisphere country celebrates Mother's Day on the third Sunday of October?

Argentina first kept the day on 11 October, the old feast of the Maternity of Mary, and stayed with October after the Church moved that feast to 1 January.

The mother of Mother's Day's founder ran 1850s 'Mothers' Day Work Clubs' focused on what?

Public health and sanitation: the clubs taught mothers hygiene and child care to curb infant mortality, and during the Civil War nursed typhoid-stricken soldiers from both sides.

In Pride and Prejudice, what is the great aim in life of Mrs Bennet, mother of five daughters?

Seeing them all married: Austen calls it 'the business of her life', and the family estate can pass only to a male cousin.

Mongolia's 1 June public holiday honours mothers together with which other group?

Children: 1 June is International Children's Day, and Mongolia made it a joint day off for mothers and their children.

Bolivia's Mother's Day, 27 May, commemorates which 1812 event in its war of independence?

A battle fought by women: the women of Cochabamba armed themselves to defend the city on La Coronilla hill and were cut down by Spanish royalist troops.

Which flower is traditional for Mother's Day in Australia, where the day falls in autumn?

White chrysanthemum: it blooms in the Australian autumn, and Australians shorten both the flower and their mothers to 'mum'.

In which 1942 Disney film is the young hero's mother killed by hunters?

Bambi: after losing his mother, the fawn is raised by the Great Prince of the Forest, the stag whose place he one day takes.

Which Disney film features the lullaby 'Baby Mine', as a locked-up mother cradles her baby?

Dumbo: Mrs Jumbo, locked in a circus wagon after lashing out to protect her son, rocks him in her trunk while the lullaby plays.

Which country celebrates Hari Ibu, its Mother's Day, on 22 December?

Indonesia: the date marks the opening of the country's first women's congress in 1928, so the day began as a tribute to the women's movement before it became one for mothers.

In Home Alone, which actress plays the mother who realises mid-flight that she has left Kevin behind?

Catherine O'Hara plays Kate McCallister, who sends Kevin to the attic the night before the trip and is on the plane to Paris before she misses him.

Spain celebrates Día de la Madre on which day?

First Sunday of May: Spain settled on it in 1965, after years in which rival department stores had promoted two different dates.

Nepal's Mata Tirtha Aunsi sends people who have lost their mothers to sacred ponds near which city?

Kathmandu: legend says a herdsman grieving for his mother saw her face in a pond there, so mourners come each year to bathe and make offerings.

Panama's Mother's Day on 8 December coincides with which Catholic feast?

The Immaculate Conception: by one account Panama's Rotary Club first proposed a May date in 1924, but the day was moved to the Marian feast and made law in 1930.

Dzień Matki, held every 26 May whatever the weekday, is the Mother's Day of which country?

Poland keeps Dzień Matki on 26 May whatever the weekday, so it usually falls on a school or working day, unlike the Sunday celebrations of most of its neighbours.

Which country celebrates Mother's Day on the birthday of its late Queen Sirikit?

Thailand keeps the day on Queen Sirikit's birthday, when Thais pay respects to their mothers with jasmine, the day's flower; she died in 2025, aged 93.

Sweden's Mother's Day falls on the last Sunday of May, a late date said to allow for what?

More flowers in bloom, by the usual account; a six-point guide printed in 1920 told Swedish children to greet their mother with a song in the morning and bring her coffee and bread they had prepared.

Israel's Mother's Day was set on the date in 1945 when which founder of Hadassah died?

Henrietta Szold never had children of her own, but she ran Youth Aliyah, which brought thousands of Jewish children out of Nazi Germany, so the date of her death became a day for mothers.

Which trade group's head introduced Mother's Day to Germany in the 1920s?

The Association of German Florists launched Muttertag in 1923 as a day for giving flowers; ten years later the Nazi government took it over as an official day honouring mothers of large families.

Which Beatle says 'Let It Be' grew out of a dream about his late mother, Mary?

Paul McCartney lost his mother Mary to cancer when he was 14 and says she told him in a dream that it would be all right, though many listeners take the song's Mother Mary for the Virgin.

Iran's Mother's Day, 20 Jumada II, marks the birthday of which figure?

Fatimah, Muhammad's daughter: Iran moved Mother's Day to her birthday, 20 Jumada II, after the 1979 revolution, so it shifts each year with the Islamic lunar calendar.

Besides humans, which of these animals go through menopause and live on for decades afterwards?

Killer whales stop breeding at about 40 yet can live for decades more, and sons and daughters alike stay for life in the family group led by its eldest female.

People around which Belgian city celebrate Mother's Day on the Assumption instead of May?

Antwerp: the painter and alderman Frans Van Kuyck launched the city's own mothers' day in 1913 on the feast of Mary, its patron saint, the day of the city's great Marian procession.

Costa Rica celebrates Mother's Day in which month, on the Assumption?

August: the day began in 1927 as a school party for pupils' mothers thrown by Heredia head teacher Evangelina Solís, and the 1932 law that made it national moved it to the Assumption.

In Greek myth, whose grief for her abducted daughter Persephone left the earth barren?

Demeter, goddess of the harvest, let nothing grow until Zeus ordered Persephone's return; because Persephone had eaten pomegranate seeds in the underworld, she must go back there for part of every year.

Which TV series follows single mother Lorelai and her daughter Rory in the town of Stars Hollow?

Gilmore Girls: Lorelai had Rory at 16 and ran away from her wealthy parents to raise her alone, which is why the two behave more like best friends than mother and daughter.

Paraguay's Mother's Day on 15 May coincides with which national celebration?

Independence Day: the revolt against Spanish rule broke out on the night of 14 May 1811; one account ties the mothers' date to independence heroine Juana María de Lara, another to the homeland as 'Madre Patria'.

Taiwan's Mother's Day coincides with which religious observance since 1999?

Buddha's Birthday: Taiwan's government made it a national day in 1999 and pinned it to the Sunday already kept for mothers, so families now mark both alongside the ceremony of bathing the Buddha.

Which Pacific nation makes the Monday after Mother's Day a national holiday?

Samoa: the Monday after the second Sunday in May is a national public holiday there, giving families a long weekend for church services and feasts.

Which of Henry VIII's six wives was the mother of Queen Elizabeth I?

Anne Boleyn was beheaded when Elizabeth was two, and the girl was declared illegitimate; she went on to rule England for 44 years.

In Shakespeare, Queen Gertrude is the mother of which title character?

Hamlet resents Gertrude for marrying his uncle Claudius so soon after his father's death, and she is killed by the poisoned wine Claudius had prepared for her son.

Germany made Muttertag an official holiday in which year?

1933: the Nazi government declared Muttertag an official day of honour for German mothers, ten years after its commercial launch in 1923.

In The Lion King, what is the name of Simba's mother, queen of Pride Rock?

Sarabi leads the lionesses' hunting party, and in the 2019 remake she refuses to become Scar's queen; Sarafina is Nala's mother.

Who promoted Czechoslovakia's first Mother's Day in 1923, as the president's daughter and Red Cross head?

Alice Masaryková championed the day in her father Tomáš Masaryk's young republic; after the Second World War it was pushed out of public life, and it returned only after 1989.

Which Philippine president moved Mother's Day to the first Monday of December in 1998?

Joseph Estrada's Proclamation No. 58 revived a Filipino tradition dating from 1921 and undid Corazon Aquino's 1988 switch to May, though most Filipinos still know the May date better.

In which classic novel do the four March sisters call their mother Marmee?

Little Women: with their father away at the Civil War, Marmee holds the household together, and on the first holiday morning she persuades her daughters to give their breakfast to a poor family.

In Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors, her mother sews the coat from what?

A box of rags: as she sewed, Parton's mother told her the Bible story behind the title, and though classmates laughed at the patchwork, Parton calls it the favourite of all her songs.

Which hormone, nicknamed the 'love hormone', drives the contractions of labour and the let-down of breast milk?

Oxytocin feeds on itself during birth: each contraction prompts the release of more, so labour builds, and later a baby's suckling triggers it again to release milk.

The founder of Mother's Day crashed a convention of which trade in Philadelphia in 1923?

Candy makers drew her scorn because, she said, people took a box of candy to Mother and then ate most of it themselves.

Frank Hering urged a national day for mothers in 1904, earning which nickname from the American War Mothers?

The Father of Mother's Day was a Notre Dame teacher who took up the cause after watching students write penny postcards home to their mothers.

The founder of Mother's Day timed its first church service in May 1908 to mark which anniversary?

Her mother's death three years earlier was the occasion: the memorial was held in the Grafton church where her mother had taught Sunday school.

Which polar bears are the only ones to spend the whole winter in a den?

Pregnant females alone overwinter in dens: the mother goes months without eating, gives birth there, and leads her cubs out only once they can walk beside her.

Which empress, a mother of sixteen, married her youngest daughter to the future Louis XVI of France?

Maria Theresa bore sixteen children in nineteen years while ruling the Habsburg lands, and she used their marriages as diplomacy: Marie Antoinette was sent to France at fourteen.

The British mothers' day later became a day off for which workers to go home to their families?

Domestic servants, many of them girls sent into service as children, were given the day off, and they picked wild flowers or violets along the lanes to give to their mothers.

Constance Adelaide Smith began reviving Britain's church mothers' day after reading in 1913 about which campaign?

The American Mother's Day push spurred Smith, a vicar's daughter, to answer with a movement of her own, and her play and booklets revived the older English festival.

Which of these countries keeps Mother's Day on the same Sunday as Britain?

Ireland keeps the older church date in March, while Australia, Canada and New Zealand, despite their British ties, all follow the American date in May.

Who won the Best Actress Oscar for playing Leigh Anne Tuohy, who takes in a homeless teenager, in The Blind Side?

Sandra Bullock collected the Oscar one night after turning up in person to accept a Razzie for worst actress in All About Steve.

In the final Harry Potter book, which Death Eater does Molly Weasley kill to protect her daughter Ginny?

Bellatrix Lestrange had just missed Ginny with a Killing Curse when Molly stepped in, and her fall leaves Voldemort without his most loyal follower for the final duel.

Which country created the title 'Mother Heroine' in 1944 for women who raised ten or more children?

The Soviet Union introduced the title in July 1944; it lapsed when the country broke up in 1991, and Russia brought it back by decree in 2022.

Whistler's Mother, painted in 1871, is held by which museum?

Musée d'Orsay, Paris: the French government bought the portrait in 1891, which is why one of the best-known American paintings hangs in France and not in the United States.

What is the formal title of the painting known as Whistler's Mother?

Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1: Whistler wanted it judged as a study in tone, not a portrait, and the Royal Academy came close to rejecting it in 1872 before agreeing to hang it.

Which country turned its 8 May Mother's Day into Parents' Day in 1973?

South Korea renamed the day so that both parents are honoured at once; children mark it by writing letters and spending the day with them.

The founder of Mother's Day said she wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not what?

Profit was what she fought: she organised boycotts, threatened lawsuits and urged people to stop buying flowers and gifts for the day.

Which Egyptian goddess, often shown nursing her infant son Horus, was honoured as the mother of kings?

Isis is the mother of Horus in Egypt's oldest religious texts, and because every pharaoh was identified with Horus, she was counted as the mother of each king in turn.

The 2016 ensemble comedy Mother's Day was the final film directed by whom?

Garry Marshall died in July 2016, less than three months after the film opened; it had reunited him with Julia Roberts, whom he directed in Pretty Woman.

In Freaky Friday (2003), what causes the mother and daughter to switch bodies?

Chinese fortune cookies do it: a restaurant manager's mother hands Tess and Anna one each mid-argument, and the swap can only be undone by an act of selfless love.

2Pac's 'Dear Mama' (1995) is dedicated to his mother, named what?

Afeni Shakur, a former Black Panther, fell into crack addiction in the 1980s; the song faces that and their poverty head-on, yet thanks her for raising him.

'Dear Mama' became the first solo hip-hop track inducted into what in 2009?

The National Recording Registry is the Library of Congress's list of recordings worth preserving for the nation; it chose a rap in which 2Pac recalls poverty and his mother's addiction and still thanks her.

Which group's 1997 Comic Relief single 'Mama' had the members' own mothers in its video?

The Spice Girls sang it to an audience of children and their own mums, and the single, timed for the British mothers' day, became their fourth UK number one in a row.

Kanye West's 2005 song 'Hey Mama' pays tribute to his mother, whose first name was what?

Donda West, an English professor, paid for his first studio time when he was 13; after her death in 2007 he sang the song for her at the Grammys.

Lennon's 1970 song 'Mother' opens which album, his first solo studio LP?

Plastic Ono Band: 'Mother', with its tolling bells, opens John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970); his mother Julia was killed by a car in 1958, when he was 17.

Which land animal has the longest pregnancy, lasting about 22 months?

The elephant carries her calf for nearly two years and then nurses it for years more, so a cow will not give birth again for at least four years.

What happens to a female octopus after her eggs hatch?

She dies because she stops feeding while she guards her eggs, wasting away by the time they hatch; the male is already gone, having died soon after mating.

Which great ape leaves the longest gap between one birth and the next?

The orangutan raises one infant at a time and may nurse it for as long as eight years, so a mother can go the better part of a decade between births.

Valentina Vassilyeva, an 18th-century Russian, is said to have borne how many children?

69 is the figure a local monastery reported to Moscow in 1782: sixteen pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets, a tally Guinness still lists as the record.

Queen Victoria's nine children married royalty across the continent, earning her what nickname?

Victoria became the grandmother of Europe as her children married into royal houses across the continent, which also spread haemophilia through several of them.

Olympias, a princess of Epirus, was the mother of which ancient conqueror?

Alexander the Great died at 32, and Olympias fought on for his infant son's claim to the empire until her rival Cassander had her executed.

Mitochondrial Eve, ancestor of all living humans through their mothers' line, is thought to have lived on which continent?

Africa: mitochondrial DNA is handed down by the mother, so she is the one woman whose chain of daughters never broke, though she was far from the only woman alive in her day.

The CBS sitcom Mom, about a mother and daughter in recovery, is set in which city?

Napa stayed the setting for all eight seasons, but the last was made without the daughter: Anna Faris left in 2020, and the show ended a season later.

Which two actresses played mother and daughter in Terms of Endearment (1983)?

Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger were both nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for the film, so the screen mother ended up beating her screen daughter to the award.

Mamma Mia! (2008) was filmed mainly on which Greek island?

Skopelos stood in for the fictional island of Kalokairi, but the 2018 sequel left Greece altogether and was filmed mainly on the Croatian island of Vis.

A 1909 Mother's Day sermon in Spokane inspired Sonora Smart Dodd to found which holiday?

Father's Day: Dodd's widowed father had raised six children alone, and she proposed his birthday for the new holiday, but Spokane's ministers settled on a Sunday two weeks later.

Luxembourg celebrates Mother's Day on the second Sunday of which month?

June: Luxembourg keeps its Mammendag on the second Sunday of June, a month after most of its neighbours.

In Finland, the president marks Mother's Day each year by presenting selected mothers with what?

Medals: on Mother's Day 1942, in the middle of the war, Finland's commander-in-chief Mannerheim went further and awarded the Cross of Liberty to all of the country's mothers at once.

What is Marge Simpson's maiden name on The Simpsons?

Bouvier is the name of Marge's own family, and Marge herself is named after creator Matt Groening's mother, Margaret, whose maiden name was Wiggum.

What does a newborn kangaroo, blind and hairless, do within minutes of being born?

Climbs into the pouch unaided: born after about a month with only its forelimbs developed, the joey hauls itself up through its mother's fur and latches on to a teat.

Which actress was finally revealed as the title character of How I Met Your Mother in its season eight finale?

Cristin Milioti is seen for the first time in that finale, credited as the girl with the yellow umbrella, after eight seasons of Ted telling his children the story.

What did Egypt's government try to rename Mother's Day after its founder was imprisoned?

Family Day was the name the government gave the holiday after his 1965 arrest, but it went back to the old name when Egyptian mothers wrote in to complain.

In Finding Nemo, what kind of fish attacks the clownfish family, leaving Nemo without a mother?

A barracuda takes Coral and all but one of the eggs, which is why Marlin is so fiercely protective of Nemo, the only one left.

Which Alfred Hitchcock thriller has Norman Bates insisting that a boy's best friend is his mother?

Psycho gives the line a chilling edge, because Norman's mother has been dead for years and survives only as his murderous alter ego.

Which actress played the mother who tells Forrest Gump that life is like a box of chocolates?

Sally Field was only ten years older than Tom Hanks when she played his mother, six years after the pair co-starred in Punchline.

Which six-minute Queen single has Freddie Mercury singing 'Mama, just killed a man'?

Bohemian Rhapsody may date back years before its 1975 recording: Mercury's friend Chris Smith recalled him playing a piano piece, 'The Cowboy Song', with that very line.

Which bird mother lays her eggs in other species' nests, leaving foster parents to raise her chicks?

Cuckoo eggs often resemble those of the chosen host, and in northern Europe the usual victims include meadow pipits and reed warblers.

Which scientist and her daughter Irène became the first mother and daughter to win Nobel Prizes?

Marie Curie's daughter Irène Joliot-Curie shared the 1935 chemistry prize with her own husband, for discovering induced radioactivity.

Which Game of Thrones character becomes Mother of Dragons when three eggs hatch in a funeral pyre?

Daenerys walks into her husband's funeral pyre with three petrified eggs, and is found alive and unburned in the ashes the next morning.

Marge Simpson's maiden name, Bouvier, was also the maiden name of which American First Lady?

Jackie Kennedy was born Jacqueline Bouvier, which is also the name the cartoon gives to Marge's own mother.

Which American band first recorded 'Stacy's Mom', a power pop hit about a boy's crush on his friend's mother?

Fountains of Wayne bassist Adam Schlesinger drew on a childhood friend who had a crush on Schlesinger's own grandmother.

Mother-of-pearl, the iridescent inner layer of some mollusc shells, is also known by which name?

Nacre is also the material that pearls themselves are made of, and it is strong and resilient as well as iridescent.

Before Barbara Bush, who was the only woman to be both wife and mother of US presidents?

Abigail Adams was married to John Adams and raised John Quincy Adams, though she died before her son won the presidency.

Which Israelite king ordered a baby cut in two to learn which of two women was its real mother?

Solomon gave the baby to the woman who begged him to spare its life, even though that meant handing the child to her rival.

Jochebed, a Levite woman, hid which infant son in a papyrus basket among the reeds of the Nile?

Moses was found by Pharaoh's daughter, who then unknowingly paid his real mother to nurse the baby for her.

Which wife of Abraham laughed to herself on overhearing that she would bear a son in old age?

Sarah was ninety by the Genesis account, and her son was named Isaac, which means 'he will laugh'.

According to Genesis, Adam named his wife Eve because she would become the mother of whom?

All the living is how Genesis explains the name, which Adam chooses only after the couple have eaten the forbidden fruit.

Which wife of the priest Zechariah gave birth to John the Baptist in her old age?

Elizabeth's husband doubted the angel's promise of a son and was left unable to speak until the baby had been named.

Which widow from Bethlehem did Ruth refuse to abandon, vowing 'where you go I will go'?

Naomi went on to care for Ruth's baby son Obed, who became the grandfather of King David.

Which mother of the prophet Samuel prayed so intensely that the priest Eli thought she was drunk?

Hannah had vowed to give any son she bore back to God, so once Samuel was weaned she brought him to Eli to serve at the shrine.

Bathsheba, mother of King David's heir, was first the wife of which soldier sent to die in battle?

Uriah carried his own death warrant, a letter from David ordering that he be placed where the fighting was fiercest.

Which prophet promised a childless woman of Shunem a son, then later raised the boy from the dead?

Elisha stretched himself over the dead boy until the body grew warm, and the child sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

Which young companion of Paul learned his faith from his mother Eunice and grandmother Lois?

Timothy had a Jewish mother who believed and a Greek father, and Paul wrote that his faith had first lived in the two women.