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Mum’s the word ! An idiom given to us by Will Shakespeare from his historical play Henry V1, which actually means to keep silent, but that’s the very last thing we’ll be doing when we celebrate Mothers Day with a big shout-out!

From Mothering Sunday to ‘International Mother’s Day’ or just ‘Mother’s Day, almost every country celebrates the day in some form – but this custom doesn’t mean we all mark the same dates in our calendars with at least six different dates for Mother’s Day across Europe alone.

In Britain, Mothering Sunday was a Christian festival held on the Fourth Sunday of Lent and as the dates for Lent vary each year, so does Mothering Sunday. This year it lands on March 25. People returned to the churches in which they were baptised as children - their ‘Mother’ church - bringing families and loved ones together. In time, servants in large house were given the day off as a holiday and would use this special time to visit their mothers and take home a gift. On Mothering Sunday children would pick flowers on their way to church to give to their mother and this tradition has continued with children creating handmade gifts and cards to give to their mum on Mother’s Day – greetings cards became particularly popular when it became difficult to return home and children wanted to send their love from afar.

Although it's often called Mother's Day in the UK, it has no connection with the American Mother's Day. In the US, Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May each year. The idea started in America when a woman called Anna Jarvis held a small memorial service for her own mother on 12 May 1907. Anna was a tireless campaigner for her vision of Mother’s Day, which became a nationally recognised holiday for everyone to celebrate their own mother (rather than a celebration of motherhood in general).

Part of this tradition is the giving of carnations to mums on Mother’s Day, a custom started by Jarvis herself at the first official Mother’s Day church service. By providing no less than 500 carnations at the service, she firmly established the carnation as the flower of Mother’s Day in the United States with many also wearing carnations as a symbol of their appreciation.

However, by 1920 Anna became angry at how companies were using the holiday as a way to make money off people by buying gifts, and even campaigned against the government to remove it from the calendar all together.

Celebrating mothers and mother figures however pre-date the medieval celebrations with the ancients doing their bit to put females on a pedestal with festivals organised by the Phrygians for Cybele, the the Great Mother of the Gods, the Greeks for the goddess Rhea while the Romans adapted the practice to their own pantheon. Some countries have continued to observe ancient festivals; for example, Durga-puja, honouring the goddess Durga, remains an important festival in India.

Mother's Day is held at different times of the year and based on different seasons across the world but has the one theme in common – the celebration of mothers, grandmothers, stepmothers, and all the mother figures in our lives. In Ethiopia mothers are celebrated during Antrosht - a three-day festival held at the end of the rainy season in early autumn while Japan celebrated on 6 March - as this was the birthday of Empress Kōjun - although in 1949 it was changed to the second Sunday in May.

For many mothers around this time, the day was a way to help comfort mothers who had lost their sons from fighting in World War II and traditionally, carnation flowers were given as gifts, a legacy from Anna Jarvis.

In Mexico, Día de Las Madres is celebrated on 10 May, and is a big deal! People take their mothers out for a meal at restaurants, and mariachi bands sing songs to them like "Las Mananitas." Poland is unique in celebrating Mother’s Day on 26 May each year, regardless of what day of the week it falls on while Russia and other neighbouring countries use International Women’s Day on March 8 to celebrate mums and all women.

Today traditional gifts still include flowers, cakes and chocolates while teddy bears and other soft toys have become popular too. Pre-stuffed teds and animals from My Heartbeat Bear and our parent company Be My Bear have the added advantage of carrying personal messages with 60 second recordable sound chips – a keepsake which will endure long after flowers have died and chocs and fizz have been consumed !

There are never enough days in the year to celebrate what our mums mean to us but creating a very special day of joy and jubilation on March 25 this year may go someway to achieving that goal.

Happy Mother’s Day mums where ever you are and whenever you celebrate the day !