Mother's Day in Lebanon and the Arab World: Why It Is on 21 March

Mother's Day in Lebanon is on 21 March every year. The same fixed date is used across most of the Arab world, including Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and the Gulf states, so Arab Mother's Day falls about seven weeks before the American one in May.

The next one is Sunday, 21 March 2027. Because the date is fixed, the day of the week changes each year. This guide explains where 21 March came from, which countries use it and how the day is marked.

When is Arab Mother's Day?

It is 21 March, the first day of spring. Encyclopaedia Britannica's table of Mother's Day dates lists these Arab League members on 21 March: Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

The exceptions are in North Africa. Britannica lists Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia on 31 May in 2026, which is the last Sunday of May, the date France also uses.

Because the date is fixed, it is easy to plan ahead: 21 March falls on a Sunday in 2027, a Tuesday in 2028 and a Wednesday in 2029.

In Arabic the day is called Eid al-Umm (عيد الأم), which simply means the festival of the mother. It is a civil and family occasion, not a religious festival, and it is marked by Muslims and Christians alike.

Mother's Day in Lebanon

In Lebanon the day is kept on 21 March by families of every community. As elsewhere in the region, it is a day for visiting or calling your mother, bringing flowers or a gift and eating together as a family.

Lebanese families living abroad end up with two dates: 21 March for relatives back home, and the local date in the country where they live. If you are sending flowers or calling home to Beirut, 21 March is the day that counts.

Where did the 21 March date come from?

It came from Egypt, and from a newspaper. Mustafa Amin, the Egyptian journalist who co-founded the newspaper Akhbar al-Youm with his twin brother Ali Amin, had seen Mother's Day in the United States. According to the American University in Cairo, he introduced the idea to Egyptian readers in a 1943 book, but it did not catch on at first.

The account usually told is that in the 1950s a widowed mother came to Amin's office. She had raised her children alone, and once they were grown and successful they had abandoned her. The brothers took up the cause in print. Ali Amin asked in his daily column why there should not be a day on which children thank their mothers with small gifts and acts of kindness.

Readers supported the proposal, and 21 March 1956 was the first official Mother's Day in Egypt. From there, in the words of the American University in Cairo, the tradition soon spread to the rest of the region.

Why the first day of spring?

The date was chosen for its meaning. 21 March falls at the spring equinox, the start of the season of growth and renewal, and the Amin brothers' campaign presented that as a fitting day to honor the people who give life.

The idea of a spring festival for mothers is much older than the modern holiday. Ancient Egyptians held an annual festival for the goddess Isis, regarded as the ideal mother, and the Romans honored the mother goddess Cybele around the March equinox.

How is Mother's Day different from the American one?

The American Mother's Day was founded by Anna Jarvis, who held the first church service for it in West Virginia in May 1908. It became a US national holiday in 1914 and falls on the second Sunday of May, so its date moves each year. Jarvis meant it as a personal day for each family to honor its own mother, and Britannica records that she spent her last years trying to abolish the holiday after it became commercialized.

The Arab date never moves. The customs, though, are much the same everywhere: Britannica notes that Mother's Day is marked with cards, flowers and gifts, and the American University in Cairo says that giving gifts, flowers or making a meal to show gratitude is common to every country that keeps the day.

How Mother's Day is marked in Arab countries

There is no fixed ritual. What families generally do is simple.

• Visit or call: adult children go to their mother's home, and those abroad phone or video call.
• Flowers and gifts: flowers are the classic present, usually with a small gift.
• A shared meal: the family eats together, at home or out.
• A greeting: the usual wish is كل عام وأنتِ بخير (kull 'am wa anti bi-khayr), meaning may you be well every year.

Mothers in Gaza on 21 March

Palestine keeps Mother's Day on 21 March as well. For mothers in Gaza the day arrives in very different conditions. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) snapshot published in July 2026 estimated that 24,600 pregnant and breastfeeding women there would need urgent nutrition support in the year to April 2027, alongside about 74,200 cases of acute malnutrition among children under five.

A gift in your own mother's name is one way to mark the day. Fight for Palestine funds food, clean water and medical aid in Gaza through local partner teams. You can read about malnutrition in Gaza, see how to help children in Gaza, or donate directly.