Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2015 | Page 31

FEATURE

A history of

Mothering Sunday
M

othering Sunday, also known
as Mother’s Day, will take place
this year on March 15, and is an
occasion for people to celebrate the day
with their mothers and grandmothers,
or just use it as a time to reflect and
remember those mothers who are no
longer with us.
In the UK, Mothering Sunday is
celebrated in the same way that Mother's
Day is celebrated elsewhere. However,
Mothering Sunday was quite different,
but has changed into a more commercial
event over the years.
During the 16th century, people
returned to their mother church, the main
church or cathedral of the area, for a
service to be held on Laetare Sunday. This
was either a large local church, or more
often the nearest cathedral. Anyone who
did this was commonly said to have gone
‘a-mothering’, although whether this term
preceded the observance of Mothering
Sunday is unclear.
Over time it became customary for
young people who were working as

servants in large houses, to be given a
holiday on Mothering Sunday. They could
use this day to visit their own mother
and often took a gift of food or handme-down clothing from their employers
to her. In turn, this moved towards the
modern holiday, on which people still visit
and take gifts to their mothers.
Mother's day in the United Kingdom
is held on the fourth Sunday of Lent,
or three weeks before Easter Sunday.
Traditionally, people observed a fast
during Lent, which is the period from Ash
Wednesday until Good Friday. During the
Lent fast, people did not eat sweet, rich
foods or meat. However, the fast was lifted
slightly on Mothering Sunday and many
people prepared a Simnel cake to eat with
their family on the day.
A Simnel cake is a light fruit cake
covered with a layer of marzipan and
with a layer of marzipan baked into the
middle of the cake. One legend says that
the cake was named after Lambert Simnel
who worked in the kitchens of Henry VII
sometime around 1500.

Early in the 20th century the custom of
keeping Mothering Sunday had tended to
lapse in Ireland and continental Europe.
In 1914, inspired by Anna Jarvis's efforts
in the United States, Constance PenswickSmith created the Mothering Sunday
Movement, and in 1921 she wrote a book
asking for the revival of the festival.
Subsequently, its wide-scale revival
was through the influence of American
and Canadian soldiers serving abroad
during World War II; the traditions of
Mothering Sunday, still practised by the
Church of England and Church of Ireland
were merged with the newly imported
traditions and celebrated in the wider
Catholic and secular society.
British-based merchants saw the
commercial opportunity in the holiday
and relentlessly promoted it in the UK,
and by the 1950s, people from Ireland
and the UK started celebrating Mother's
Day on the same day that Mothering
Sunday was celebrated.

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