Happy Mother's Day 2017! In the United States the second Sunday of May is celebrated, but the feast honors the sacrifice of mothers everywhere. Other countries celebrating Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May include Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and more. However, other dates to celebrate are usually also held in the spring. 

More than 46 countries around the world celebrate Mother's Day . Typical celebrations include attending church, going out to eat, and giving gifts to mothers and grandmothers. Gifts generally consist of, among other things, a card and a bouquet of flowers.

Modern Mother's Day celebrations date back to the early 20th century in the United States, but the idea of ??celebrating mothers in the spring brings us to the ancient pagan festivals.  Click here for parent appreciation day.

Learn more about the history and origin of Mother's Day here!

What you have to know:

1. Has pagan origins

Mothers dayA "Maya" girl sits on an altar during the "La Maya" tradition on the streets, on May 2, 2015 in Colmenar Viejo, near Madrid, Spain. (Getty)

While modern Mother's Day did not derive directly from pagan celebrations for the goddess and titan Cibeles and Rhea, the date and influence of past fertility festivals have made the modern celebration synonymous with the ancient in many countries. The Legacy Proyect writes:

The first Mother's Day celebrations go back to the spring celebrations of ancient Greece in honor of Rhea, the mother of the gods. People made offerings of honey, cakes, fine drinks, and flowers at dawn.

Rhea was one of the titans, daughter of Uranus and Gaea, and wife of Cronos. His first son was Zeus, king of the gods and god of heaven and thunder. Also Hades was born and Poseidón, god of the underworld and god of the sea. According to GreekMythology.com , "it began to appear in the fourth century BC; However, she was often depicted with features similar to those used for Cybele, thus making the two goddesses indistinguishable. "

Cibeles was a fertility goddess from Anatolia who later spread to the Greeks and Romans. The Roman festival of Cybele is known as Hilaria. Hilaria was celebrated at the equinox in March to honor Cybele and her son / lover, Attis. Attis committed suicide by castrating himself just before his wedding with another person. Cibeles wanted to honor the life of Attis by making sure that his corpse would never rot or decay. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica , "Attis was fundamentally a god of vegetation, and in his self-mutilation, death and resurrection represents the fruits of the earth, which die in winter only to resurface in the spring. Click here for latest updated about fathers day.

Hilaria would later be associated with the fools of April and is where we derive the word "hilarante".