In the early 1960s, on the initiative of a chain of department stores (Galerías Preciados), which copied the custom established in Cuba, Mother's Day was also celebrated on the first Sunday of May (El Corte Inglés, the great competitor of Galerías Preciados, celebrated the holiday in December). The two dates, May and December, coexisted until 1965 when the ecclesiastical authorities chose to celebrate the festival in May, within the month consecrated to the Virgin, to recover the authentic character of the Day of the Immaculate Conception.