Mother's Day Quiz
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151 free Mother's Day trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 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.
30 of 151 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which president made Mother's Day a US holiday in 1914?
Woodrow Wilson
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.
Q 02Which woman is credited as the founder of the modern Mother's Day holiday in the United States?
Anna Jarvis
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.
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 did the founder of Mother's Day choose as its emblem?
Carnation
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.
Q 05The 1914 presidential proclamation of Mother's Day asked Americans to display what?
The national flag
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.
Q 06Traditionally, what does wearing a white flower on Mother's Day signify?
That one's mother has died
That one's mother has died; a coloured flower means she is living. Florists promoted the colour code when white blooms ran short.
Q 07Which photographer took 'Migrant Mother', the 1936 portrait that came to symbolise the Great Depression?
Dorothea Lange
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.
Q 08Where did Mother's Day's founder stand on it by the 1940s?
She petitioned to have it rescinded
She petitioned to have it rescinded: after decades fighting its commercialisation, she went door to door in Philadelphia collecting signatures against her own holiday.
Q 09Critics of how commercial Mother's Day became file it under which dismissive label?
A Hallmark Holiday
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.
Q 10Japan first kept Mother's Day in 1931 on the birthday of the wife of which emperor?
Hirohito
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.
Q 11In Greek legend, which hero's mother, Thetis, dipped him in the River Styx to make him invulnerable?
Achilles
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.
Q 12On which Sunday in May does the U.S. celebrate Mother's Day?
Second Sunday
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.
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 21Which Russian president created an official Mother's Day in 1998?
Boris Yeltsin
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.
Q 22Which US holiday ranks just above Mother's Day for cards sent in the 2020s?
Valentine's Day
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.
Q 23In which state was the founder of the American Mother's Day born?
West Virginia
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.
Q 14In Mexico, what song do mariachi bands traditionally play for mothers on the morning of Mother's Day?
Las Mañanitas
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.
Q 15Which reptile mother gently rolls her eggs in her mouth to help her babies hatch?
Crocodile
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.
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
Lent: because the season is counted back from Easter, the British day moves each year, anywhere from early March to early April.
Q 18Which marzipan-topped fruit cake is the traditional bake for Mother's Day in Britain?
Simnel cake
Simnel cake: its eleven marzipan balls stand for the apostles, with Judas left out.
Q 19Julia Ward Howe's 1870 "Mother's Day Proclamation" was primarily a call for what?
International peace
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.
Q 20In Greek myth, which goddess, the Earth itself, was the mother of the Titans?
Gaia
Gaia bore the Titans to the sky god Uranus, then armed her son Cronus with a sickle to overthrow him.
Q 24What did the holiday's founder insist about the apostrophe in its name?
It belongs before the s
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.
Q 25Which industries are said to have quietly paid for the care of Mother's Day's founder in her final years?
Florists and card makers
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.
Q 26Which country made 16 November Mother's Day in 2012, marking a 1961 speech by its founding leader?
North Korea
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.
Q 27Most Arab countries celebrate Mother's Day on the first day of which season?
Spring
Spring: an Egyptian newspaper campaign won the day, which Egypt first marked on 21 March 1956, and other Arab countries copied the 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 29The mother of Mother's Day's founder held an 1868 Mothers' Friendship Day to reconcile which groups?
Union and Confederate veterans
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.
Q 30The founder of Mother's Day said a printed card for the day proved its sender was what?
Too lazy to write a letter
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.