Mother’s Day in Georgia: dates, meaning and how to experience it

By Mariam Lomidze, GTour desk · Fact-checked against the sources listed · Last checked 25 October 2026 · Editorial policy

What it is

Dedis Dghe (დედის დღე) means, literally, “Mother’s Day” — deda is the Georgian word for mother, and dghe means day. It is a secular, nationwide public holiday observed every 3 March, when Georgians across the country set aside time to honor their mothers, grandmothers and, by extension, motherhood itself as a civic and family value. Unlike most entries in the Georgian festive calendar, it carries no liturgical content and is not fixed by the Church; it is a creation of the modern Georgian state, sitting alongside — and deliberately apart from — 8 March International Women’s Day, which Georgia also keeps as a public holiday.

The holiday is celebrated by virtually everyone: schoolchildren prepare cards and short concerts for their mothers and teachers, adult children visit or call their mothers and grandmothers, and workplaces close for the day. It has no regional confession attached to it — Orthodox Christian, Muslim and other Georgian families mark it in broadly the same domestic register — which makes it one of the more universally shared dates on the national calendar, even though it is younger and less ritually elaborate than feasts such as Easter or Giorgoba.

Historical background

• 1917 — International Women’s Day on 8 March begins to be observed across the former Russian Empire, including Tiflis (Tbilisi), in the wake of the February Revolution.
• 1921–1991 — During the Soviet period, 8 March is the only state-sanctioned day honoring women and mothers in Georgia, folded into the wider Soviet civic calendar.
• 1990 — Following Georgia’s first multi-party elections, the new Supreme Council begins dismantling Soviet-era state symbols and reconsidering the official calendar.
• 1991 — Georgia restores independence; according to Georgian government sources, the Supreme Council designates 3 March as a distinct national Mother’s Day, separate from the Soviet 8 March holiday.
• 1995 — The Constitution of Georgia is adopted, with provisions grounding family and parenthood protections in national law.
• 2003 — Patriarch Ilia II institutes 14 March as the Day of Family Sanctity and Love, adding a church-sponsored, family-themed date later in the same month.
• Today — Both 3 March and 8 March remain official public holidays in Georgia, a layered legacy of Soviet, post-Soviet and ecclesiastical calendars coexisting within the same week.

The coexistence of two “women’s” holidays eleven days apart is best understood as a product of how post-Soviet states renegotiated inherited Soviet observances. Rather than abolish 8 March outright — a date with deep popular attachment after seven decades of Soviet practice — independent Georgia added a new, explicitly Georgian occasion on 3 March, built around the particular cultural weight the word deda carries in Georgian life. The choice reflects a broader pattern across the former Soviet space in the 1990s, where newly independent states kept inherited Soviet holidays for their familiar comforts while introducing parallel national ones to assert a distinct identity.

That cultural weight is visible in language itself: the Georgian word for mother tongue, dedaena, shares the same root as deda, and the country’s enduring primer for teaching the Georgian alphabet, Iakob Gogebashvili’s Deda Ena (1876), remains in use in Georgian schools today. Mother’s Day, then, sits at the intersection of a relatively recent piece of state calendar-making and a much older, linguistically embedded reverence for motherhood in Georgian culture — a reverence further reinforced a decade later by the Church’s own 14 March family holiday.

Meaning and traditions

Dedis Dghe is marked at home rather than in public ritual. Children, from kindergarten age upward, prepare cards, drawings, poems or small school concerts for their mothers and grandmothers in the days leading up to 3 March; adult children typically visit, telephone, or send flowers and gifts to their deda and bebia (grandmother). Flower shops do brisk business, and mimosa — grown commercially in Georgia’s subtropical west, particularly around Kobuleti in Adjara — is the most traditional gift, a custom shared with the 8 March holiday and with much of the former Soviet Union.

Where families gather for a meal, the occasion often includes an informal supra (feast table) presided over by a tamada (toastmaster), in which a toast to mothers is one of the recognized fixed toasts in the traditional Georgian toasting sequence — alongside toasts to peace, to the departed, and to Georgia itself. Georgian popular song and poetry supply much of the day’s emotional register: verses and songs titled simply “Deda” are recited or played on radio and television, and school recitals frequently draw on this repertoire. There is little regional variation in practice, since the holiday is civil rather than liturgical; differences are mostly in scale — larger multigenerational gatherings in villages and in regions such as Kakheti and Imereti, more compact family dinners in Tbilisi apartments.

When it happens

Mother’s Day falls on a fixed civil date, 3 March, every year, regardless of the day of the week. In 2026 it falls on 3 March, and in 2027 it falls on 3 March again. It is an official public holiday in Georgia: government offices, banks, schools and most private businesses close for the day. Museums and major tourist sites generally remain open, though it is worth checking individual opening hours in advance, and public transport continues to operate on its normal schedule.

Where to experience it

Visitors will see the holiday most clearly in Tbilisi’s flower markets and street vendors — around Rustaveli Avenue, near Deserter’s Bazaar, and at metro-station flower stalls — where mimosa and other spring flowers are sold in volume from late February onward. Family restaurants and supra-style venues across the capital and in regional towns such as Telavi or Kutaisi fill with multigenerational groups in the evening. There is no liturgical service tied to the day, so churches hold their normal schedule; visitors are welcome to attend but should follow standard Georgian Orthodox church etiquette — modest dress, head covering for women, and quiet, unobtrusive behavior during services. If invited into a Georgian home for the occasion, it is customary to bring an odd number of flowers (even numbers are associated with funerals and commemorations) and to accept, rather than refuse, offers of food and toasts.

Did you know

• Georgia keeps two distinct “women’s” public holidays eleven days apart: 3 March for mothers and 8 March for women generally, a direct legacy of disentangling from, while not discarding, the Soviet calendar.
• The Georgian word for “mother tongue,” dedaena, shares its root with deda (mother); the 1876 primer Deda Ena by Iakob Gogebashvili is still used to teach the Georgian alphabet to schoolchildren.
• The Georgian Orthodox Church added its own family-themed date, 14 March, instituted by Patriarch Ilia II in 2003 as a family-oriented alternative near Valentine’s Day.
• A toast to mothers is traditionally one of the fixed toasts offered by a tamada during a formal Georgian supra, alongside toasts to peace and to the departed.
• Much of the mimosa sold in Georgian cities around 3 and 8 March is grown commercially in the subtropical climate of Adjara, particularly near Kobuleti.

Practical tips for visitors

Mother’s Day is a quiet, domestic holiday rather than a public spectacle, so it has little direct effect on sightseeing beyond the closure of banks, government offices and some smaller shops. Restaurants popular for family dinners should be booked ahead for the evening of 3 March, particularly in Tbilisi and Kutaisi. Early March weather in most of Georgia is cool and changeable — typically 5–10°C in Tbilisi, colder and snowier in the highlands — so warm layers and waterproof footwear are advisable. Flower prices rise in the days before the holiday; if purchasing a bouquet as a gift, ask the vendor to ensure it contains an odd number of stems, in keeping with local custom.

Combine it with

A visit timed around Mother’s Day pairs well with a trip to Adjara, where the mimosa sold in Tbilisi’s markets is grown, and where early spring brings the subtropical coast to life before the summer crowds. It also combines naturally with Tbilisi, for the flower-market atmosphere and family-run restaurants, and with Kakheti, where multigenerational supra traditions and the region’s wine culture give the holiday’s domestic rituals their fullest expression.

Questions travellers ask

Sources

• Government of Georgia
• Patriarchate of Georgia
• National Parliamentary Library of Georgia
• Georgian National Tourism Administration
• Mother's Day Georgia
• Mother's Day Georgia Law on Public Holidays
• Mother's Day in Georgia
• Mother's Day history Georgia