Mothering Sunday

In the United Kingdom, Mothers Day (or Mothering Sunday) falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent ('Mid-Lent Sunday) - which typically falls in March or early April.

Mothering Sunday has been celebrated for hundreds of years, although the exact origins are not certain. Traditionally, young apprentices were released by their masters for the Mothering Sunday weekend in order to visit their families:

There was an old custom on Refreshment or Mid-Lent Sunday for people to visit their mother-church and make offerings on the altar. Hence probably arose the practice of "mothering," or going to visit parents on that day, and taking presents to them.

Herrick alludes to this pleasant custom in the following lines--

"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 me."

Many a mother's heart would rejoice to welcome to the old village home once again some fond youth or maiden who had gone to seek their fortunes in the town, and many happy recollections would long linger of "Mothering" Sunday.

The cakes alluded to in the above verse, which children presented to their parents on these occasions, were called Simnells. In some parts of England--in Lancashire,
Shropshire, and Herefordshire--these cakes are still eaten on Mid-Lent Sunday. Possibly they had some religious signification, for the Saxons were in habit of eating consecrated cakes at their festivals. The name Simnell is derived from a Latin word signifying fine flour, and not from the mythical persons, Simon and Nell, who are popularly supposed to have invented the cake.

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