Mother's Day POS Installations - A Brief History

This year Mother's Day is on March 18th and Mother's Day installations are going in this week. It is celebrated in over 46 different countries on varying dates. Mother's Day is worth around £1.5 billion to the UK economy with flowers being the most popular gift closely followed by chocolates, jewellery, clothing and household gift items, and of course the cards. According to the Greeting Cards Association Mother’s Day is worth £56.4 million in sales with an average price paid of £2.05 per card.

Where did it all begin?

As with a lot of our modern celebrations and festivals it can be traced back to ancient Greeks and Romans, and in this case the spring festival. The Greek goddess Rhea, wife of Cronus, and mother to many other deities, was celebrated for her motherhood, as was her Roman counter part Cybele, the mother goddess.

Early Christian's held a celebration on the fourth Sunday of Lent in honour of the Virgin Mary, mother of Christ and it continues on this date today. The practise of all mothers being celebrated came about as children returned from prayers in church with flowers and gifts for their own mothers. This practise can be traced back to the 1600s in the UK but had all but died out by the 1900s and only gained popularity again in the last few decades when it was commercialised targeting returning soldiers from WW2.

Today it is mostly celebrated in the vast cathedral high ceilings of supermarkets as we hang up promotional materials to encourage and remind shoppers of Mother's Day coming up. These are some examples of past Mother's Day installations. Typically retail display installations are window graphics, hanging signs on wires and gondola end signs.

 Happy Mother's Day!