Mothering Sunday

 

Mothering Sunday

The latest post box topper, a beautiful bunch of tulips.

Mothering Sunday, more commonly referred to as Mother’s Day, is on Sunday 10^th March in UK. It is fixed in the Christian calendar on the fourth Sunday in Lent, precisely three weeks before Easter Sunday. It was first observed in the Middle Ages, (500 to 1500 AD) when children working in domestic service were allowed to visit their home or mother church on Laetare Sunday.

 Laetare Sunday took its name from the first words of the Latin introit for the daily Mass, Laetare Jerusalem (Rejoice, O Jerusalem). Eventually, the day developed into a day of celebration. Lenten fasting rules were relaxed, so the day became known also as Refreshment Sunday, Simnel Sunday or Pudding Pie Sunday. Simnel cake is a light fruit cake covered with marzipan and decorated with eleven balls of marzipan, representing the eleven faithful disciples. Some sources say that it was traditionally baked on Mothering Sunday, others that it was baked by the girls in service, as proof of their cooking skills, and taken home to their mothers. The cake was a traditional component of an Easter Sunday tea.

Mothering Sunday became a day when families reunited. Often, the children would pick spring flowers on their way home and gradually flowers became associated with the day.

 Mother’s Day was initiated in 1907 by Anna Jarvis, whose mother tended injured soldiers during the American Civil War (1861 – 1865). She wanted to see a day of celebration that would honour mothers and the work they did. She chose the second Sunday in May. By 1911, all the US states observed the holiday, and in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson declared it a national holiday.

Eventually, Anna Jarvis deplored the commercialism that overtook the holiday and campaigned against it, even though she had founded it. Naturally, as night follows day, the UK copied the USA and Mothering Sunday became Mother’s Day. It is a day that is celebrated around the world, at different times of the year. Many countries mark the day on International Women’s Day in March.

Like all the other ‘celebrations’, the day has been overwhelmed by commerce. It is sad that a simple celebration should have become so overblown and it is yet another day on which those who have no cause to celebrate are isolated.

Once the last overpriced bunch of flowers has been sold, Easter will be the next intense focus of the retail world.

Wedding Day 1927

My parents were married on 16^th April 1927 when they were 23 years old. (Actually, my mother's 23^rd birthday was on 14^th January. My father wouldn't be 23 until 16^th December.)

They look happy and relaxed in these photographs but my mother told me she cried all the way through the marriage ceremony! The tears had dried by the time the camera was brought out. Her mother had wanted to have church bells ringing but it was Lent so the bells remained silent until Easter Day.

When I was about eight years old I announced at a gathering of my parents' friends, 'My parents were married on 16^th April and I was born two days later.' This caused some mirth, particularly as I was the youngest of their three children. They had been married for 61 years and had set a fine example for us by the time my father died but they were quite unusual in their philosophy. In an era when marriages were considered to be binding, no matter how difficult circumstances might become, they agreed right at the beginning of their life together that should it prove impossible to maintain their relationship they would divorce. Divorced couples were often shunned by former friends but my parents continued their friendship and support for those few who could no longer live together. I think they were very conscious of the compromises and effort required to share life and, though they must have had their differences, we were never aware of conflict or disagreement. They were quiet, determined, strong-minded and much later, after I was married, I realised how much they were to each other.Eighty-three years ago the sun shone on their wedding day. Today it shines again. I think of them often, singly and together. Impossible though it is, I wish I could have known them as young adults – I think they were a lot of fun!