More than 70 countries today celebrate Mother's Day, the international holiday honoring mothers the world over.

Although it went by a different name, Mother's Day was first celebrated in ancient Greece, with annual festivals held to honor Rhea, the mother of the gods. Early Christians celebrated a mother's festival on the fourth Sunday of Lent to honor Mary. The day was later made to include all mothers, and was renamed Mothering Sunday. This tradition was largely discontinued in the British colonies of America.

In 1914, Anna M. Jarvis became the mother of Mother's Day as it is known today. The schoolteacher wanted to honor her mother, Anna Maria Reeves Jarvis, and with the help of legislators created the holiday for mothers. After a seven-year-long campaign, President Woodrow Wilson made the second Sunday in May the official celebratory day for mothers.

Now, Mother's Day is a day for giving small gifts - cards, flowers and handmade trinkets - to the special women in Americans' lives. Flowers are overwhelmingly the most popular Mother's Day gifts, with 21,135 registered florists in the United States handing out millions of flowers in the few days leading up to Sunday.

Most flowers bought in the United States for Mother's Day were grown in California or Columbia. Here are some other interesting mother-related facts:

* Number of mothers in the U.S.: 82.8 million

* Percentage of women over age 40 who are mothers: 80

* Number of births per woman in the U.S.: 2.1

* Total number of births per woman in Utah, the nation's leader: 2.6

* Average age of first-time mothers: 25

* Number of births in 2006 that didn't occur in hospitals: 38,568

* Month with the highest number of births: August

* Most common day of the week to deliver a baby: Wednesday

* Most popular boys' name in 2007: Jacob

* Most popular girls' name in 2007: Emily

* Second most popular gift given on Mother's Day: Perfume

* Most requested gifts: Greeting cards, hugs