Mothers Day, or Mothering Sunday, as it’s known in the UK, has developed over the decades to become a worldwide event to celebrate and show appreciation and gratitude for our Mums and other mother figures in our lives – and that includes the mother in law!.  Although the day and date may vary from country to country, the sentiment remains the same – lots of love to Mum!

Mothering Sunday, like most of the other traditions that we celebrate today, has roots that can be traced back to early Roman and Christian times.   The Roman and Greek goddess’s of motherhood and fertility were Cybele and Rhea who both had holidays in their names during the month of March.  And in Celtic Europe, Brigid and later St. Brigid had a celebration day in spring known as Mothers Day….

Early Christians honoured Mary the mother of Christ during the fourth Sunday in Lent, (which is always three weeks before Easter Sunday) this celebration was extended in sixteenth century England to become a day when families could re-unite.  

Children, (many as young as ten years old) working as apprentices or as servants were allowed to take half a day off work to go to their village church, and if there was enough time left after church, they could then visit their mothers before returning back to work !  The children would often pick posies of wild violets or primroses to give to their Mothers, so starting the now established tradition of giving flowers – we assume they threw them away if they had to go back to work quickly!

Many households celebrated this special day with a boiled fruit cake, called Simnel Cake which was decorated with marzipan and violets (this cake is also linked to Easter Celebrations because of the eleven marzipan balls representing Jesus’ disciples) and in some regions of England Mothering Sunday is also known as Simnel Sunday.

In the north of England and certain areas of Scotland this day was called Carling Sunday – not after a well known alcoholic drink, but after a pancake made with peas then deep fried and seasoned with salt and pepper, hmm, I’d rather have the cake.

In America Mothers Day has originated from more recent times, and is always held on the second Sunday in May.  It began during, and then after the American Civil War (1861-1865) where many women began organising peace groups.  Following on from this in 1868 Ann Jarvis set about  establishing a “Mother’s Friendship Day” with the intention of  reuniting families that had been divided during the Civil War.  Sadly Ann died before seeing her goal achieved and her daughter Anna Marie Jarvis continued on with her mother’s wishes.  Anna campaigned for many years to establish the first Mothers Day national holiday celebrations in1908. At this first church service Anna gave each person a white carnation in memory of her Mother: which again could be another link to the tradition of giving flowers on this day.

Finally sixteen years later in 1914 the then US president: Woodrow Wilson declared May 9^th as a day “for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war”. This day went on to become a very popular national holiday with people not only giving flowers but also sending cards and other gifts, (much to the dismay of Anna Marie Jarvis, who felt the true meaning of the day was being lost in commercialism)

In the UK Mothering Sunday grew in popularity after the war.  This was mainly due to the American troops that were stationed in Britain, who were sending gifts back home for their Mothers.  And so the tradition has grown, today we celebrate Mothering Sunday by giving flowers, gifts and cards to say a big thank you to our “Moms”.

Don’t forget Mothers Day in the UK on 14th March 2010 – she’ll think you’re even more special!

Written on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 5:44 pm in the category Well fancy that!.
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