Mothering Sunday in the UK is the equivalent of Mother's Day in other countries.
It has been celebrated in the UK on the fourth Sunday in Lent since at least the 16th century. For a long time, it has been a day for giving thanks for all the things our mothers do for us.
In 2008, Mothering Sunday will be on Sunday 2 March
Why is Mothering Sunday on different days each year?
Mothering Sunday is not a fixed day because it is always the middle Sunday in Lent (which lasts from Ash Wednesday to the day before Easter Sunday).
The History behind Mothering Sunday
Mothering Sunday was also known as 'Refreshment Sunday' or 'Mid-Lent Sunday'. It was often called Refreshment Sunday because the fasting rules for Lent were relaxed, in honour of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, a story in the Christian Bible.
No one is absolutely certain exactly how the idea of Mothering Sunday began, but we know that on this day, about four hundred years ago, people who lived in little villages made a point of going not to their local church but to the nearest big church. To what was called the Mother Church and some would go to the nearest city to worship in the cathedral.
People who visited their mother church would say they had gone "a mothering." Young English girls and boys 'in service' were only allowed one day to visit their family each year. This was usually Mothering Sunday. Often the housekeeper or cook would allow the maids to bake a cake to take home for their mother. Sometimes a gift of eggs; or flowers from the garden (or hothouse) was allowed. Flowers were traditional, as the young girls and boys would have to walk home to their village, and could gather them on their way home through the meadows.
Simnel Cake
The most favoured cake was - as it still is in some families - the 'simnel cake'. People began honouring both their mothers and the church.
‘I’ll to thee a Simnell bring
‘Gainst thou go’st a mothering,
So that, when she blesseth thee,
Half that blessing thou’lt give to me.’
Robert Herrick 1648
The fourth Sunday in Lent is still known as Simnel Sunday in some areas of England, because of the tradition of baking Simnel cakes.
The Simnel cake is a fruit cake. A flat layer of marzipan (sugar almond paste) is placed on top of and decorated with 11 marzipan balls representing the 12 apostles minus Judas, who betrayed Christ.
The word simnel probably derived from the latin word ‘simila’, meaning fine, wheaten flour from which the cakes were made.
A Simnel is still made in many parts of England today, although it is now more commonly made for and eaten on Easter Day .
How is Mothering Sunday celebrated in England?
Mothering Sunday is a time when children pay respect to their Mothers. Children often give their Mothers a gift and a card.
Many churches give the children in the congregation a little bunch of spring flowers during the Mothering Sunday service, to give to their Mothers as a thank you for all their care and love throughout the year.
Mothers' Day
In recent times Mothering Sunday has in Britain taken on the name and character of the US Mothers' Day. The original meaning of Mothering Sunday in England has been largely lost. Mothers Day in America is in May and does not change months, from year to year, like Mothering Sunday does in England.
Mother's Day in the United States
The United States celebrate Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May. In the United States, Mother's Day was loosely inspired by the British day and was imported by social activist Julia Ward Howe after the American Civil War. However, it was intended as a call to unite women against war. In 1870, she wrote the Mother's Day Proclamation as a call for peace and disarmament. Howe failed in her attempt to get formal recognition of a Mother's Day for Peace. Her idea was influenced by Ann Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker who, starting in 1858, had attempted to improve sanitation through what she called Mothers' Work Days. She organized women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors. In parts of the United States it is customary to plant tomatoes outdoors after Mother's Day (and not before).
When Jarvis died in 1907, her daughter, named Anna Jarvis, started the crusade to found a memorial day for women. The first such Mother's Day was celebrated in Grafton, West Virginia, on 10 May, 1908, in the church where the elder Ann Jarvis had taught Sunday School. Grafton is the home to the International Mother's Day Shrine. From there, the custom caught on — spreading eventually to 45 states. The holiday was declared officially by some states beginning in 1912. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother's Day, as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war (with specific reference to The Great War).
Nine years after the first official Mother's Day, commercialization of the U.S. holiday became so rampant that Anna Jarvis herself became a major opponent of what the holiday had become. Mother's Day continues to this day to be one of the most commercially successful U.S. occasions. According to the National Restaurant Association, Mother's Day is now the most popular day of the year to dine out at a restaurant in the United States.
It has been celebrated in the UK on the fourth Sunday in Lent since at least the 16th century. For a long time, it has been a day for giving thanks for all the things our mothers do for us.
In 2008, Mothering Sunday will be on Sunday 2 March
Why is Mothering Sunday on different days each year?
Mothering Sunday is not a fixed day because it is always the middle Sunday in Lent (which lasts from Ash Wednesday to the day before Easter Sunday).
The History behind Mothering Sunday
Mothering Sunday was also known as 'Refreshment Sunday' or 'Mid-Lent Sunday'. It was often called Refreshment Sunday because the fasting rules for Lent were relaxed, in honour of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, a story in the Christian Bible.
No one is absolutely certain exactly how the idea of Mothering Sunday began, but we know that on this day, about four hundred years ago, people who lived in little villages made a point of going not to their local church but to the nearest big church. To what was called the Mother Church and some would go to the nearest city to worship in the cathedral.
People who visited their mother church would say they had gone "a mothering." Young English girls and boys 'in service' were only allowed one day to visit their family each year. This was usually Mothering Sunday. Often the housekeeper or cook would allow the maids to bake a cake to take home for their mother. Sometimes a gift of eggs; or flowers from the garden (or hothouse) was allowed. Flowers were traditional, as the young girls and boys would have to walk home to their village, and could gather them on their way home through the meadows.
Simnel Cake
The most favoured cake was - as it still is in some families - the 'simnel cake'. People began honouring both their mothers and the church.
‘I’ll to thee a Simnell bring
‘Gainst thou go’st a mothering,
So that, when she blesseth thee,
Half that blessing thou’lt give to me.’
Robert Herrick 1648
The fourth Sunday in Lent is still known as Simnel Sunday in some areas of England, because of the tradition of baking Simnel cakes.
The Simnel cake is a fruit cake. A flat layer of marzipan (sugar almond paste) is placed on top of and decorated with 11 marzipan balls representing the 12 apostles minus Judas, who betrayed Christ.
The word simnel probably derived from the latin word ‘simila’, meaning fine, wheaten flour from which the cakes were made.
A Simnel is still made in many parts of England today, although it is now more commonly made for and eaten on Easter Day .
How is Mothering Sunday celebrated in England?
Mothering Sunday is a time when children pay respect to their Mothers. Children often give their Mothers a gift and a card.
Many churches give the children in the congregation a little bunch of spring flowers during the Mothering Sunday service, to give to their Mothers as a thank you for all their care and love throughout the year.
Mothers' Day
In recent times Mothering Sunday has in Britain taken on the name and character of the US Mothers' Day. The original meaning of Mothering Sunday in England has been largely lost. Mothers Day in America is in May and does not change months, from year to year, like Mothering Sunday does in England.
Mother's Day in the United States
The United States celebrate Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May. In the United States, Mother's Day was loosely inspired by the British day and was imported by social activist Julia Ward Howe after the American Civil War. However, it was intended as a call to unite women against war. In 1870, she wrote the Mother's Day Proclamation as a call for peace and disarmament. Howe failed in her attempt to get formal recognition of a Mother's Day for Peace. Her idea was influenced by Ann Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker who, starting in 1858, had attempted to improve sanitation through what she called Mothers' Work Days. She organized women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors. In parts of the United States it is customary to plant tomatoes outdoors after Mother's Day (and not before).
When Jarvis died in 1907, her daughter, named Anna Jarvis, started the crusade to found a memorial day for women. The first such Mother's Day was celebrated in Grafton, West Virginia, on 10 May, 1908, in the church where the elder Ann Jarvis had taught Sunday School. Grafton is the home to the International Mother's Day Shrine. From there, the custom caught on — spreading eventually to 45 states. The holiday was declared officially by some states beginning in 1912. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother's Day, as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war (with specific reference to The Great War).
Nine years after the first official Mother's Day, commercialization of the U.S. holiday became so rampant that Anna Jarvis herself became a major opponent of what the holiday had become. Mother's Day continues to this day to be one of the most commercially successful U.S. occasions. According to the National Restaurant Association, Mother's Day is now the most popular day of the year to dine out at a restaurant in the United States.
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