The author of the Letter to the Hebrews reminds Christians that they’re surrounded by a fantastic “cloud of witnesses.” (NRSVA) That “cloud” has continued to grow in size since then. In this monthly column we will likely be eager about among the people and events, over the past 2000 years, which have helped make up this “cloud.” People and events which have helped construct the community of the Christian church because it exists today.
In the UK, ‘Mothering Sunday’ is traditionally celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent. As Lent, within the church liturgical calendar, is determined by the date of Easter (a moveable feast), there’s, consequently, no set date on which ‘Mothering Sunday’ is well known. Like Easter, it too moves nevertheless it is often on a Sunday in March.
It is usually now called ‘Mother’s Day,’ which is a borrowing from US practice, however the two events are different. The US-inspired ‘Mother’s Day’ began within the early twentieth century and is well known on the second Sunday in May. It has since been joined by ‘Father’s Day’ and ‘Grandparents’ Day,’ although, arguably, only ‘Father’s Day’ competes when it comes to business popularity.
To return to the Sunday focused on moms. If one has a calendar or diary, one can tell whether it is UK- or US-inspired by whether it uses the term ‘Mothering Sunday’ or ‘Mother’s Day’ and on which particular Sunday it places the event.
Globally, other nations even have equivalent days connected to motherhood and these are celebrated on quite a lot of dates. While a lot of these are actually largely secular events, a number are rooted in several Christian faith communities which use them as a method to have fun ‘Mother Church,’ the ‘Virgin Mary’ and/or God’s gift of motherhood.
It also needs to be noted that other (non-Christian) historic religious communities – including those of Ancient Greece and Rome – also had events that focused on motherhood and its significance. This just isn’t surprising provided that motherhood – as fatherhood – is a key aspect of common human experience and has often been the main focus of non secular devotion in some form, or used as a method by which spiritual concepts will be expressed.
What is most vital is that the actual tradition of ‘Mothering Sunday’ – as present in the UK, Ireland and a few Commonwealth countries – has its roots in an event that is way older than the US celebration and the business card-giving and gift-giving that the US event has inspired. And these roots – where we will discover them from the sparse medieval and Early Modern sources – express Christian beliefs and practices.
The medieval roots of ‘Mothering Sunday’
There is not any easy answer as to how old Mothering Sunday is. However, there’s evidence that it originally was a day on which Christians returned to the church wherein they were baptised, as this was thought to be their ‘Mother Church.’
Another possibility is that this was rooted in a time when dependent churches recognised and celebrated their relationship with the senior church in the world. In the Early Medieval period the establishment of churches in any given area was normally based on a ‘minster church’ which served a big region. Over time, these large areas became divided up into (smaller) parishes, with their very own churches. However, these later churches maintained their reference to the older – ‘Mother’ – church and this was often expressed in certain rights regarding baptism and burial which took place on the older church. These eventually passed to the parish churches, but a way of older connections often continued for hundreds of years and was, at times, enforced by church law, including penalties for infringing on these ‘Mother Church’ rights.
Alternatively, the ‘Mother Church’ in query can have been the cathedral church, which was the chief church in a diocese that included many other churches which were placed under the bishop’s authority.
These ‘Mother Church’ associations can have been encouraged by the tradition of focusing, on that mid-Lent Sunday, on the scriptural passage: “Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the current Jerusalem, for she is in slavery together with her children. But the opposite woman [Sarah] corresponds to the Jerusalem above; she is free, and he or she is our mother” (Galatians 4:25–26, NRSVA).
In medieval Latin this was expressed as “Jerusalem mater omnium’ (Jerusalem mother of all). In this fashion, Jerusalem, as mother, was related to the universal church community as our nurturing mother. This resonates with the female references to the church because the ‘bride of Christ,’ in Revelation 19:7, 21:2, 21:9, 22:17.
The introit on that Sunday included Psalm 122:1, “I used to be glad once they said to me, ‘Let us go to the home of the Lord!’” (NRSVA). This became connected to events happening at local cathedrals wherein people travelled to this ‘Mother Church.’
Evidence from Lichfield, within the West Midlands, reveals mid-Lent medieval processions to the cathedral there, which took place until the sixteenth-century Reformation. Whether this occurred in other cathedrals, on this particular Sunday, is less clear but may perhaps have done, since such processions actually occurred. Robert Grosseteste, the thirteenth-century bishop of Lincoln, criticised parishes who fought one another over whose church banner must have precedence in these processions to the cathedral! Clearly, the event at Lincoln could get relatively competitive and unruly.
In this medieval period, the marking of this significant mid-Lent Sunday was related to particular celebratory food. This may come as a surprise, given the medieval tradition of a Lenten fast, nevertheless it must be remembered that Sundays were/aren’t fast days on this 40-days period. As the celebration day of Christ’s resurrection, Sunday was at all times a ‘feast’ day, not a ‘fast’ day. Even today – for individuals who surrender something for Lent – the tradition indicates that Sundays are exempt from the ‘fast.’
Mothering Sunday coincides with Laetare Sunday, which can be often known as ‘Mid-Lent Sunday’ or ‘Refreshment Sunday.’ This was a break in fasting that occurred halfway through the penitential season of Lent.
In the medieval period this Sunday became related to the eating of ‘Simnel cake.’ Now related to Easter, this marzipan fruit cake was originally a distinct form of luxury and was eaten on Mothering Sunday. Its name can have been derived from a Latin word that referred to wonderful white flour used to make a elaborate bread. By the seventeenth century this had develop into a boiled pudding containing fruit, almonds and spices. By the late nineteenth century this had developed right into a fruit cake with a marzipan middle layer and decorated with sugared nuts or fruit. Then, in the midst of the 20th century, eleven marzipan balls were placed on top to represent the eleven apostles (minus Judas) and its consumption was moved from Mothering Sunday to Easter.
The Early-Modern appearance of a family-focused Mothering Sunday
While Mothering Sunday has medieval roots, its first well-documented appearance occurs within the seventeenth century and was then related to a convention local to the Severn Valley region of western England. And this had seen a shift from the deal with ‘Mother Church’ to moms and families.
During the British Civil Wars, a royalist officer named Richard Symonds got here across a custom at Worcester which was unknown to this Essex-man. In 1644, he wrote of an event which occurred every yr on the “Mid-Lent Sunday” when prolonged families met, as children and godchildren got here home to the “head and chief of the family and have a feast.” The undeniable fact that this was each a family day and one particularly associated, ultimately, with moms was revealed within the undeniable fact that those living within the vicinity of Worcester called it “the Mothering-day.”
Later records indicate that servants got this Sunday off, with a purpose to visit their mother-church in the corporate of their moms and other relations. This relatively neatly combined each the medieval tradition and the family-focused one which seems to have been emerging right now. A poem, published in 1648 and written by Robert Herrick, contained the road “I’le to thee a simnell bring, ‘Gainst thou go’st a mothering.” At the time he wrote this – though a Londoner – he was probably living in Devon. However, the poem was entitled ‘A Ceremonie in Glocester.’ The reference to Gloucester places it in the identical Severn Valley region as that recorded in Worcester in 1644.
By the nineteenth century the family-focused tradition was recorded across the West Midlands and the Welsh borderlands. It was also recorded in Gloucestershire, Somerset and Devon, with outliers in Lancashire and Leicestershire. In most of those places it had develop into a day-off for servants and apprentices to go home. Eating simnel cake was popular in a lot of these places, with some regional variations in what was considered appropriate food to have fun the day at home.
The re-invention of Mothering Sunday
By the Thirties, the Mothering Sunday tradition seems to have almost died out across the country. This had been accelerated by the large reduction within the numbers of live-in servants for the reason that end of the First World War.
However, it was revived when US soldiers were stationed within the UK in the course of the Second World War and brought with them the American Mother’s Day version (which had develop into a national holiday within the US in 1913). This prompted renewed interest within the older tradition – which was encouraged by card manufacturers within the UK. Yet, true to its historical roots, within the UK it was fixed on the mid-Lent Sunday and didn’t migrate into May to mimic the US event. It was thus a fusion of business interests – card makers, florists and confectioners – with a seventeenth-century tradition that had much older (medieval) roots.
Today, Mothering Sunday is well-established, and lots of families will come together to be with mum, or perhaps post flowers and a card to a distant mum. In many churches on Mothering Sunday daffodils will likely be distributed to the mums. At my church we take the chance to thank God that his love is the pattern for all human love and care; say thanks to God for mums; give flowers to all the ladies within the congregation; and use the chance to have fun all the ladies within the church no matter whether or not they are moms or not.
We know that the day just isn’t easy for some members, who may not have had a fantastic relationship with their mother, not have a mother living, or do not need children (the identical is true of Father’s Day). But we attempt to make it a day which everyone can learn from and revel in. At its heart this seems very much in keeping with the historical roots of the day in celebrating ‘Mother Church’ – living out a lifetime of care and compassion – because the ‘bride of Christ’ (a term which just isn’t limited by gender in its application). And it’s, in fact, a fantastic day to have fun and thank mums.
So, Happy Mothering Sunday!
Martyn Whittock is a historian, commentator, columnist and a Licensed Lay Minister within the Church of England. The creator, or co-author, of fifty-seven books, his work includes: Daughters of Eve (2021), Jesus the Unauthorized Biography (2021), The End Times, Again? (2021), The Story of the Cross (2021), Apocalyptic Politics (2022) and American Vikings: How the Norse Sailed into the Lands and Imaginations of America (2023). His latest book (published in April) is: Vikings within the East. From Vladimir the Great to Vladimir Putin – the Origins of a Contested Legacy in Russia and Ukraine.
