Mothering Sunday
Encyclopedia
| 2004 | 21 March |
|---|---|
| 2005 | 6 March |
| 2006 | 26 March |
| 2007 | 18 March |
| 2008 | 2 March |
| 2009 | 22 March |
| 2010 | 14 March |
| 2011 | 3 April |
| 2012 | 18 March |
| 2013 | 10 March |
| 2014 | 30 March |
| 2015 | 15 March |
| 2016 | 6 March |
Mothering Sunday is a Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
festival celebrated throughout Europe that falls on the 4th Sunday in Lent. Secularly
Secularity
Secularity is the state of being separate from religion.For instance, eating and bathing may be regarded as examples of secular activities, because there may not be anything inherently religious about them...
it became a celebration of motherhood. It is increasingly being called Mother's Day
Mother's Day
Mother's Day is a celebration honoring mothers and celebrating motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, yet most commonly in March, April, or May...
, although in countries other than the UK and Ireland that holiday has other origins. In the UK it is considered synonymous with Mother's Day as celebrated in other countries.
History
In the Roman religion the HilariaHilaria
For the saint of this name, see Saints Chrysanthus and Daria.In Ancient Roman religious tradition, the hilaria were festivals celebrated on the vernal equinox to honor Cybele....
festival was held in honour of the mother goddess Cybele
Cybele
Cybele , was a Phrygian form of the Earth Mother or Great Mother. As with Greek Gaia , her Minoan equivalent Rhea and some aspects of Demeter, Cybele embodies the fertile Earth...
and it took place during mid-March. As the Roman Empire and Europe converted to Christianity, this celebration became part of the liturgical calendar as Laetare Sunday
Laetare Sunday
Laetare Sunday , so called from the incipit of the Introit at Mass, "Laetare Jerusalem" , is a name often used to denote the fourth Sunday of the season of Lent in the Christian liturgical calendar...
, the fourth Sunday in Lent
Lent
In the Christian tradition, Lent is the period of the liturgical year from Ash Wednesday to Easter. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer – through prayer, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial – for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and...
to honour the Virgin Mary and the "mother church
Mother Church
In Christianity, the term mother church or Mother Church may have one of the following meanings:# The first mission church in an area, or a pioneer cathedral# A basilica or cathedral# The main chapel of a province of a religious order...
".
During the sixteenth century, people returned to their mother church for a service to be held on Laetare Sunday
Laetare Sunday
Laetare Sunday , so called from the incipit of the Introit at Mass, "Laetare Jerusalem" , is a name often used to denote the fourth Sunday of the season of Lent in the Christian liturgical calendar...
. This was either a large local church, or more often the nearest Cathedral
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
. Anyone who did this was commonly said to have gone "a-mothering", although whether this preceded the term Mothering Sunday is unclear. In later times, Mothering Sunday became a day when domestic servants were given a day off to visit their mother Church, usually with their own mothers and other family members. It was often the only time that whole families could gather together, since on other days they were prevented by conflicting working hours, or, more usually, since holidays had not been invented yet, that was the only day in the year that they were allowed off.
By the 1920s, the custom of keeping Mothering Sunday had tended to lapse in Ireland and in continental Europe. In 1914, inspired by Ann Jarvis' efforts, Constance Penswick-Smith created the Mothering Sunday Movement, and in 1921 she wrote a book asking for the revival of the festival; Constance was the daughter of the vicar of Coddington, Nottinghamshire
Coddington, Nottinghamshire
Coddington is a village in Nottinghamshire, England. It is located 3 miles east of Newark on Trent. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 972.-Windmill:...
, and there is a memorial in Coddington's church. Its widescale revival was through the influence of American and Canadian soldiers serving abroad during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
; the traditions of Mothering Sunday, still practiced by the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
and Church of Ireland
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...
were merged with the newly-imported traditions and celebrated in the wider Catholic and secular society. UK-based merchants saw the commercial opportunity in the holiday and relentlessly promoted it in the UK; by the 1950s it was celebrated across all the UK.
People from Ireland and the UK started celebrating Mother's Day, but on the same day that Mothering Sunday was celebrated, the fourth Sunday in Lent. The two celebrations have now been mixed up, and many people think that they are the same thing.
Mothering Sunday remains in the calendar of some Canadian Anglican
Anglican Church of Canada
The Anglican Church of Canada is the Province of the Anglican Communion in Canada. The official French name is l'Église Anglicane du Canada. The ACC is the third largest church in Canada after the Roman Catholic Church and the United Church of Canada, consisting of 800,000 registered members...
churches, particularly those with strong English connections.
Names
The other names attributed to this festival include Refreshment Sunday, Pudding Pie Sunday (in SurreySurrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, England), Mid-Lent Sunday. Simnel Sunday and Rose Sunday. Simnel Sunday is named after the practice of baking Simnel cake
Simnel cake
Simnel cake is a light fruit cake, similar to a Christmas cake, covered in marzipan, then toasted, and eaten during the Easter period in the United Kingdom, Ireland and some other countries. A layer of marzipan or almond paste is also baked into the middle of the cake...
s to celebrate the reuniting of families during the austerity of Lent. Because there is traditionally a relaxation of Lenten vows on this particular Sunday in celebration of the fellowship of family and church, the lesser-used label of Refreshment Sunday
Refreshment Sunday
The Refreshment Sundays or Rose Sundays are Sundays within the two major fasts observed in Western Christianity, Lent and Advent. On these days, the fast was allowed to be relaxed, hence the name "Refreshment Sunday"...
is also used, although rarely today.
Rose Sunday is sometimes used as an alternative title for Laetare Sunday, as is witnessed by the purple robes of Lent being replaced in some churches by rose-coloured ones. The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia asserts that "the Golden Rose, sent by the Popes to Catholic sovereigns, used to be blessed at this time, and for this reason the day was sometimes called 'Dominica de Rosa'."
This Sunday was also once known as "the Sunday of the Five Loaves", from the traditional Gospel
Gospel
A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
reading for the day. Prior to the adoption of the modern "common" lectionaries, the Gospel reading for this Sunday in the Anglican, Roman Catholic, Western-Rite Orthodox, and Old Catholic churches was the story of the feeding of the five thousand
Feeding the multitude
Feeding the multitude is the combined term used to refer to two separate miracles of Jesus in the Gospels.The First Miracle, "The Feeding of the 5,000" is the only miracle which is present in all four canonical Gospels...
(for instance, the Anglican Book of Common Prayer stipulates St John's Gospel
Gospel of John
The Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
6:5-14).
Other
The Epistle for the fourth Sunday in Lent as set out in the Book of Common PrayerBook of Common Prayer
The Book of Common Prayer is the short title of a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion, as well as by the Continuing Anglican, "Anglican realignment" and other Anglican churches. The original book, published in 1549 , in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English...
gives a special place to the theme of maternal love: Galatians
Epistle to the Galatians
The Epistle of Paul to the Galatians, often shortened to Galatians, is the ninth book of the New Testament. It is a letter from Paul of Tarsus to a number of Early Christian communities in the Roman province of Galatia in central Anatolia...
4:26 states that "Jerusalem which is above is free; which is Mother of us all."
Another tradition associated with Mothering Sunday is the practice of "clipping the church
Clipping the church
Clipping the church is an ancient custom that is traditionally held on Easter Monday or Shrove Tuesday in the United Kingdom. The word "clipping" is Anglo-Saxon in origin, and is derived from the word "clyp-pan", meaning "embrace" or "clasp". Clipping the church involves either the church...
", whereby the congregation form a ring around their church building and, holding hands, embrace it.
For some Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
churches, it is the only day in Lent when marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
s can be celebrated.
During the church services held in that day, it is traditional that children will give a bunch of spring flowers to their mothers.
Cakes
- Nowadays the Simnel cakeSimnel cakeSimnel cake is a light fruit cake, similar to a Christmas cake, covered in marzipan, then toasted, and eaten during the Easter period in the United Kingdom, Ireland and some other countries. A layer of marzipan or almond paste is also baked into the middle of the cake...
is strongly associated with this holiday. - Around 1600, when the celebration was only held in EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and ScotlandScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, a different kind of pastry was preferred. - In England they served a cake called "Mothering Sunday Buns" with raisin and butter icing.
- In Northern England and Scotland some preferred "Carlings", a pancakePancakeA pancake is a thin, flat, round cake prepared from a batter, and cooked on a hot griddle or frying pan. Most pancakes are quick breads; some use a yeast-raised or fermented batter. Most pancakes are cooked one side on a griddle and flipped partway through to cook the other side...
made of steeped peas fried in butter.
Historical antecedents
Celebrations of mothers and motherhood occur throughout the world; many of these have histories can be traced back to ancient festivals. The origins of Mothering Sunday can be tracked back to these festivals.There is evidence of mother goddess
Mother goddess
Mother goddess is a term used to refer to a goddess who represents motherhood, fertility, creation or embodies the bounty of the Earth. When equated with the Earth or the natural world such goddesses are sometimes referred to as Mother Earth or as the Earth Mother.Many different goddesses have...
worship in the ancient world, dating back as far as 6.000 BC, and many mother goddess shrines could be found in ancient times in Asia minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
.
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
imported the Mother Goddess cult from Asia Minor, in the form of a festival to Cybele
Cybele
Cybele , was a Phrygian form of the Earth Mother or Great Mother. As with Greek Gaia , her Minoan equivalent Rhea and some aspects of Demeter, Cybele embodies the fertile Earth...
, a great mother of Greek gods. It was held around the Vernal Equinox around Asia Minor. Originally they identified Cybele with Rhea
Rhea (mythology)
Rhea was the Titaness daughter of Uranus, the sky, and Gaia, the earth, in Greek mythology. She was known as "the mother of gods". In earlier traditions, she was strongly associated with Gaia and Cybele, the Great Goddess, and was later seen by the classical Greeks as the mother of the Olympian...
, the mother of gods. The details were not recorded, and we only know that the goddess was attended by galli
Galli
A Gallus was a eunuch priest of the Phrygian goddess Cybele, whose worship was incorporated into the state religious practices of ancient Rome.-About the Galli:...
.
Ancient Romans appropriated the cult to Cybele/Rhea in order to absorb culturally the Greeks and the habitants of Asia Minor, honoring Cybele in the Hilaria
Hilaria
For the saint of this name, see Saints Chrysanthus and Daria.In Ancient Roman religious tradition, the hilaria were festivals celebrated on the vernal equinox to honor Cybele....
festivals, from the Ides of March
Ides of March
The Ides of March is the name of the 15th day of March in the Roman calendar, probably referring to the day of the full moon. The word Ides comes from the Latin word "Idus" and means "half division" especially in relation to a month. It is a word that was used widely in the Roman calendar...
(15 March) to 18 March. But the Romans were horrified by the Greek celebrations; they quickly associated the cult to the Roman version of Cybele and they made up their own customs. They also made a separate festival in April dedicated to Magna Deorum Mater Idaea, a version of Cybele that was even further separated from Greek customs. The two goddesses, Cybele and Mater Idaea, were eventually merged into a single entity that was completely Romanized, although they kept using galli.
The festivals of Cybele evolved into the Christian festival of Mothering Sunday, honouring the Virgin Mary and your mother church
Mother Church
In Christianity, the term mother church or Mother Church may have one of the following meanings:# The first mission church in an area, or a pioneer cathedral# A basilica or cathedral# The main chapel of a province of a religious order...
(the main church of the area) It's now a long standing tradition, part of the liturgical calendar in several Christian denominations, including Anglicans, and in the Catholic calendar it is marked as Laetare Sunday
Laetare Sunday
Laetare Sunday , so called from the incipit of the Introit at Mass, "Laetare Jerusalem" , is a name often used to denote the fourth Sunday of the season of Lent in the Christian liturgical calendar...
, the fourth Sunday in Lent. Children and young people who were "in service" (servants in richer households) were given a day off on that date so they could visit their families (or, originally, return to their "mother" church). The children would pick wild flowers along the way to place them in the church or to give them to their mothers as gifts. Eventually, the religious tradition evolved into a secular tradition of giving gifts to mothers. This festival survived in the UK and Ireland for longer than in other European countries, and it was repopularised in the 20th Century. Most people are unaware of its historical origins, and regard Mothering Sunday and Mother's Day as the one and same festival.
Ancient romans had a different unrelated holiday, Matronalia
Matronalia
In ancient Roman religion, the Matronalia was a festival celebrating Juno Lucina, the goddess of childbirth , and of motherhood and women in general. In the original Roman calendar traditionally thought to have been established by Romulus, it was the first day of the year...
, that was dedicated to Juno
Juno (mythology)
Juno is an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. She is a daughter of Saturn and sister of the chief god Jupiter and the mother of Mars and Vulcan. Juno also looked after the women of Rome. Her Greek equivalent is Hera...
; it was intended to favor the fertility of married women. Married women, independently of whether they were mothers or not, made private parties where they prayed for happiness in their marriages and prepared dishes for their female slaves. The husbands gave money and gifts to their wives and prayed for their pregnancy. It was complemented by the Saturnalia
Saturnalia
Saturnalia is an Ancient Roman festival/ celebration held in honour of Saturn , the youngest of the Titans, father of the major gods of the Greeks and Romans, and son of Uranus and Gaia...
festival, where male slaves were given freedom and wives gave presents to their husbands. It was celebrated when the harvests were planted.
See also
- Father's DayFather's DayFather's Day is a celebration honoring fathers and celebrating fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society. Many countries celebrate it on the third Sunday of June but it is also celebrated widely on other days...
- HilariaHilariaFor the saint of this name, see Saints Chrysanthus and Daria.In Ancient Roman religious tradition, the hilaria were festivals celebrated on the vernal equinox to honor Cybele....
- HomecomingHomecomingHomecoming is the tradition of welcoming back alumni of a school. It most commonly refers to a tradition in many universities, colleges and high schools in North America...
- Laetare SundayLaetare SundayLaetare Sunday , so called from the incipit of the Introit at Mass, "Laetare Jerusalem" , is a name often used to denote the fourth Sunday of the season of Lent in the Christian liturgical calendar...
(cf. Gaudete SundayGaudete SundayGaudete Sunday is the third Sunday of Advent in the liturgical calendar of the Western Church, including the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Lutheran Churches, and some liturgical Protestant churches...
) - LentLentIn the Christian tradition, Lent is the period of the liturgical year from Ash Wednesday to Easter. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer – through prayer, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial – for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and...
- Mother's DayMother's DayMother's Day is a celebration honoring mothers and celebrating motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, yet most commonly in March, April, or May...