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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