These Mother's Day trivia questions and answers go past the usual three facts: where the founder was born, the dates other countries keep, animal mothers from the octopus to the orca, and mother words such as alma mater and metropolis.
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Four rounds for the table
How Mother's Day began has the first state to make it official and the founder's arrest. Mothering Sunday and dates around the world runs from Norway in February to Indonesia in December. Animal mothers meets a deep-sea octopus, a hooded seal and a queen bee. Mother words and mothers in history asks about Mother Goose, Mother Jones and Mitochondrial Eve.
A brunch sheet with a key
Finish a set of ten. The end card has Print question sheet, a mixed sheet of 20. Open More options for Print answer key, or to pick one Topic first.
Questions and answers
Who started Mother's Day?
Anna Jarvis is the founder of Mother's Day in the United States. The first service was held at a church in Grafton, West Virginia, on May 10, 1908, and West Virginia declared the holiday officially in 1910.
When is Mother's Day in other countries?
It differs. Spain keeps the first Sunday of May, Mexico May 10, Egypt March 21, Thailand August 12, Argentina the third Sunday of October and Indonesia December 22. Mothering Sunday in the United Kingdom is the fourth Sunday in Lent.
Why is it Mother's Day and not Mothers' Day?
The founder, Anna Jarvis, wanted a singular possessive: a day for each family to honor its own mother, not a plural possessive for all the mothers in the world.
Which animal guards her eggs the longest?
A deep-sea octopus, Graneledone boreopacifica, was observed brooding her eggs for 53 months, the longest egg-brooding period known in the animal kingdom. It is one of the questions in Animal mothers.
The 'mother church' of Mother's Day in Grafton was given which designation on October 5, 1992?Answer: A National Historic Landmark. Source: Wikipedia: International Mother's Day Shrine
Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, the 'mother church' of Mother's Day, was incorporated in 1962 under which name?Answer: The International Mother's Day Shrine. Source: Wikipedia: International Mother's Day Shrine
Anna Jarvis was once arrested for disturbing the peace. What had angered her?Answer: The selling of carnations to raise money. Source: Wikipedia: Mother's Day
In 1912 Anna Jarvis incorporated a body to win recognition for the day. What was it called?Answer: The Mother's Day International Association. Source: Wikipedia: Anna Jarvis
In which West Virginia town was Anna Jarvis born on May 1, 1864?Answer: Webster. Source: Wikipedia: Anna Jarvis
Mother's Day in the United States moves with the calendar. What is the latest date it can be?Answer: May 14. Source: Wikipedia: Mother's Day (United States)
Since 1914, which neighbor of the United States has shared its date for Mother's Day?Answer: Canada. Source: Wikipedia: Mother's Day (United States)
Which state was the first to recognize Mother's Day as an official holiday, in 1910?Answer: West Virginia. Source: Wikipedia: Mother's Day (United States)
Mothering Sunday and dates around the world 15
Hilaria, one of the old celebrations of mothers and motherhood, was a festival of which ancient people?Answer: The Romans. Source: Wikipedia: Mother's Day
In Argentina, Mother's Day is the third Sunday of which month?Answer: October. Source: Wikipedia: Mother's Day
In Egypt, Mother's Day falls on March 21. What else does that date mark?Answer: The first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. Source: Wikipedia: Mother's Day
In Ethiopia, Mother's Day is celebrated for three days. When does it come?Answer: After the end of the rainy season. Source: Wikipedia: Mother's Day
In France, the law set the Fête des Mères on which Sunday, unless Pentecost falls on it?Answer: The last Sunday in May. Source: Wikipedia: Mother's Day
In Hindu tradition Mother's Day is called Mata Tirtha Aunshi. In which country especially is it kept?Answer: Nepal. Source: Wikipedia: Mother's Day
In Spain, Mother's Day is the first Sunday of which month?Answer: May. Source: Wikipedia: Mother's Day
In Thailand, Mother's Day is kept on August 12. Whose birthday was that?Answer: Queen Sirikit's. Source: Wikipedia: Mother's Day
In which country was Mother's Day first celebrated on February 9, 1919, organized at first by religious institutions?Answer: Norway. Source: Wikipedia: Mother's Day
Indonesia keeps Mother's Day on which date?Answer: December 22. Source: Wikipedia: Mother's Day
It is autumn in Australia on Mother's Day. Which flower is the traditional gift there?Answer: White chrysanthemums. Source: Wikipedia: Mother's Day
Mothering Sunday is a day that honors which place?Answer: One's mother church. Source: Wikipedia: Mothering Sunday
Panama keeps Mother's Day on the same date as a church feast. Which date?Answer: December 8. Source: Wikipedia: Mother's Day
Which cake above all has long been made for Mothering Sunday as a gift to parents?Answer: Simnel cake. Source: Wikipedia: Mothering Sunday
Who revived the modern keeping of Mothering Sunday, beginning in 1913?Answer: Constance Adelaide Smith. Source: Wikipedia: Mothering Sunday
Animal mothers 20
A deep-sea octopus, Graneledone boreopacifica, was watched guarding one clutch of eggs for longer than any other known animal. For how long?Answer: 53 months. Source: Wikipedia: Graneledone boreopacifica
A female kangaroo can freeze the growth of an embryo until the earlier joey is able to leave the pouch. What is this called?Answer: Embryonic diapause. Source: Wikipedia: Kangaroo
A male swan is a cob. What is a female swan called?Answer: A pen. Source: Wikipedia: Swan
How does a mother American alligator move her hatchlings to the water?Answer: In her mouth. Source: Wikipedia: American alligator
How does a mother wolf spider carry her newly hatched young?Answer: On her back. Source: Wikipedia: Wolf spider
In a honey bee colony, which bee is usually the mother of most, if not all, of the bees in the hive?Answer: The queen. Source: Wikipedia: Queen bee
In horse breeding, what is the mother of a foal called?Answer: The dam. Source: Wikipedia: Horse breeding
Marsupials take their name from the Latin word for the pouch in which the young are carried. What is the word?Answer: Marsupium. Source: Wikipedia: Marsupial
Some populations of orca form stable family groups, or pods, built on which family line?Answer: The mother's. Source: Wikipedia: Orca
What does a mother strawberry poison-dart frog feed her tadpoles?Answer: Her own unfertilized eggs. Source: Wikipedia: Strawberry poison dart frog
What does a sea otter mother wrap round her pup to keep it from drifting away while she dives?Answer: Kelp. Source: Wikipedia: Sea otter
What is a female donkey called?Answer: A jenny. Source: Wikipedia: Donkey
What is a fish called that carries its eggs or young in its mouth?Answer: A mouthbrooder. Source: Wikipedia: Mouthbrooder
What is it called when adult animals, such as sea turtles, return to their birthplace to reproduce?Answer: Natal homing. Source: Wikipedia: Natal homing
What is the leader of a group of female elephants, usually the oldest cow, called?Answer: The matriarch. Source: Wikipedia: Elephant
What is the tendency of a hen to sit on a clutch of eggs to incubate them called?Answer: Broodiness. Source: Wikipedia: Broodiness
Where does a polar bear mother give birth to her cubs during the winter?Answer: In a maternity den. Source: Wikipedia: Polar bear
Which great ape has the longest interval between births, of six to nine years?Answer: The orangutan. Source: Wikipedia: Orangutan
Which seal has the shortest nursing period of any mammal, about four days?Answer: The hooded seal. Source: Wikipedia: Hooded seal
While a giant Pacific octopus mother cares for her eggs, what does she never leave them to do?Answer: Feed. Source: Wikipedia: Giant Pacific octopus
Mother words and mothers in history 17
A name taken from the name of one's mother or a female ancestor is called what?Answer: A matronymic. Source: Wikipedia: Matronymic
Alma mater is a Latin name for one's old school or college. What does it mean?Answer: Nourishing mother. Source: Wikipedia: Alma mater
The empress Maria Theresa gave birth to how many children in nineteen years?Answer: 16. Source: Wikipedia: Maria Theresa
In a computer, what is the motherboard?Answer: The main circuit board. Source: Wikipedia: Motherboard
In a matrilineal society, how is descent traced?Answer: Through the mother's line. Source: Wikipedia: Matrilineality
In mining, what is a mother lode?Answer: The main vein of ore. Source: Wikipedia: Mother lode
The labor organizer Mary G. Harris Jones was known by which name?Answer: Mother Jones. Source: Wikipedia: Mother Jones
Mitochondrial DNA is passed down from mothers. What name is given to the most recent woman from whom all living people descend in an unbroken line of mothers?Answer: Mitochondrial Eve. Source: Wikipedia: Mitochondrial Eve
Mother Teresa was born in which city, then part of the Ottoman Empire?Answer: Skopje. Source: Wikipedia: Mother Teresa
Mother-of-pearl, the shining lining of some shells, has which other name?Answer: Nacre. Source: Wikipedia: Nacre
The name Mother Goose came into English when a French collection of fairy tales was translated as Tales of My Mother Goose. Who wrote the collection?Answer: Charles Perrault. Source: Wikipedia: Mother Goose
The nine children of which queen married into royal families across the continent, earning her the name 'grandmother of Europe'?Answer: Queen Victoria. Source: Wikipedia: Queen Victoria
The painting known as Whistler's Mother has which formal title?Answer: Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1. Source: Wikipedia: Whistler's Mother
Persephone was the daughter of which Greek goddess?Answer: Demeter. Source: Wikipedia: Demeter
To the ancient Greeks, a metropolis was the city that sent out settlers to found a colony. What does the word mean?Answer: Mother city. Source: Wikipedia: Metropolis
To whom is the first published version of The Comic Adventures of Old Mother Hubbard and her Dog attributed?Answer: Sarah Catherine Martin. Source: Wikipedia: Old Mother Hubbard
Which sea birds did sailors call Mother Carey's chickens?Answer: Storm petrels. Source: Wikipedia: Mother Carey
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Every question, wrong choice and explanation is our own wording. Each answer agrees with a sentence in the English Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org, text under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license) named and linked beside the question, read on 2026-10-02; every extra claim in an explanation was read the same day on that page. The latest date of the holiday was worked as arithmetic. Dates kept in other countries are given as the articles give them; a feast day of a faith is asked plainly, as a date and a name. Left out on purpose: living people, sales and spending figures, shops, card makers and brands. Facts that the site's May, Father's Day, baby shower and Americana packs already ask (who founded the day, the church in Grafton, the 1914 proclamation, the apostrophe, the white carnation, the fourth Sunday in Lent, Mexico's May 10, the hornbill, the cuckoo and the earwig) were dropped, so no question here repeats one of theirs word for word as they stood on 2026-10-02. Levels are our estimate for a mixed table; each round is stored easiest first. Licence: own work