Parents' Sunday

Definition and Meaning

Parents' Sunday is a Lord's Day observed to give thanks for parents and to reflect on the biblical teaching of honoring them. It is timed to coincide with Parents' Day (May 8), a national day of commemoration, and is usually kept on the second Sunday of May or on the Sunday closest to May 8. It is not an observance of the traditional liturgical calendar of the Western church. Rather, it is better described as a church event through which Korean churches have brought a civic commemoration and the value of the family into worship.

Biblical and Historical Background

The passage the church cites most often on this day is the fifth of the Ten Commandments: "Honour thy father and thy mother" (Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16). From the New Testament, Ephesians 6:1-3, which calls this "the first commandment with promise" and exhorts children to obedience, is read alongside it. Sermons frequently present biblical figures as examples, such as Jochebed, who raised Moses, and Ruth, who remained with her mother-in-law Naomi to the end.

The day's historical roots lie in the American Mother's Day, which is generally said to have begun in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a service honoring mothers at a Methodist church in West Virginia. It became an official national observance in the United States in 1914. In Korea, the government designated May 8 as "Mother's Day" in 1956 and renamed it "Parents' Day" in 1973. Churches likewise first observed the day as "Mother's Sunday" and reportedly began calling it "Parents' Sunday" in keeping with this change.

Practice in Korean Churches

In Korean churches, where May is observed as "Family Month," the second Sunday is often kept as Parents' Sunday, following Children's Sunday on the first Sunday. Some churches combine the two and observe them together as "Family Sunday." Common features of the day include the following:

• A sermon on honoring parents and on the family
• Sunday school children or young adults pinning carnations on members of their parents' generation and on elderly members
• A meal honoring the elderly (a feast for senior members) or recognition of long-lived church members
• A time of remembrance for parents who have died

The Confucian culture of filial piety (hyo, 孝) is often cited as a reason Korean churches have given this day such importance. Having long faced the misconception that "Christianity neglects ancestors and parents" because of the ancestral rites issue, Korean churches are said to have used the day as an opportunity to demonstrate the biblical teaching on filial piety.

Most denominations, including Presbyterian, Methodist, Holiness, Baptist, and Full Gospel bodies, include Parents' Sunday in their annual calendars. In churches that emphasize the liturgical calendar, such as the Anglican Church of Korea, the day falls within the Easter season and is therefore not treated as a formal observance. Individual congregations, however, may still include elements commemorating Parents' Day in their services.