Mother’s day is usually celebrated on March or April in most countries and you might be wondering why I have greeted Russian mothers a happy mother’s day.
Well that is because in Russia, Mother’s day is celebrated on the last day of November. Russia is one of the few countries that celebrate their mother’s day other than March or April. Majority of countries like the U.S or the Philippines celebrate mother’s day usually in the second Sunday of May. By the way you might be thinking of sending Mother’s day flowers across the US if your mother is in the U.S during that special day.
It used to be that there is no Russian Mother’s day. The closest they have to a mother’s day was the United Nation’s declared International Women’s day in March. It was said that in the 1940s, this day was very popular to Russian women as this holiday originated as a day of rebellion of women struggling for equal rights with men.
According to Wikipedia “Demonstrations marking International Women’s Day in Russia proved to be the first stage of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Following the October Revolution, the Bolshevik Alexandra Kollontai persuaded Lenin to make it an official holiday in the Soviet Union, and it was established, but was a working day until 1965. On May 8, 1965 by the decree of the USSR Presidium of the Supreme Soviet International Women’s Day was declared a non working day in the USSR” in commemoration of the outstanding merits of Soviet women in communistic construction, in the defense of their Fatherland during the Great Patriotic War, in their heroism and selflessness at the front and in the rear, and also marking the great contribution of women to strengthening friendship between peoples, and the struggle for peace.”
It was President Boris Yeltsin who officially declared a mother’s day in Russia to be held every last Sunday of November. As to why president Yeltsin placed mother’s day in Russia in November, that I do not know.
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