Hari Ibu
Next: December 22, 2026
For mothers and the women's movement.
The story
Where it comes from
Hari Ibu marks 22 December 1928, the opening day of the first Indonesian Women's Congress, when women's organisations met at Dalem Jayadipuran in Yogyakarta and agreed to form a federation to advance Indonesian women. A later congress, in Bandung in July 1938, chose the date as Hari Ibu, and President Sukarno's decree No. 316 of 1959 made it a national day. Indonesia's women's ministry stresses that it means more than Mother's Day: it honours the women's movement and its part in the struggle for independence.
How it's celebrated
Many families use it to thank their mothers with Selamat Hari Ibu messages, which is why the women's ministry keeps reminding people of its wider meaning. Official events include talks and seminars, visits to pioneering women and pilgrimages to heroes' cemeteries. It is a national day but not a public holiday, so it is marked around work and school.
Did you know
- The 1959 decree listed Hari Ibu alongside National Education Day and Heroes' Day as national days that are not holidays.
- 'Aisyiyah, the women's organisation of Muhammadiyah, took part in the 1928 congress, and one of its members, Siti Munjiyah, served as the congress's vice-chair.
- The Bandung congress of 1938 also backed a draft modern marriage law drawn up by the lawyer Maria Ulfah.
The greeting
Selamat Hari Ibu
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