Mother's Day and Mothering Sunday have become confused so that many people think they are the same thing -and I suppose that they have become the same thing but when I was small ( a looooooooooong time ago!) we always celebrated Mothering Sunday on the 4th Sunday of Lent and my own mother was very disparaging of 'that American idea' of Mother's Day. We always had to make sure we made or bought a card that said 'Happy Mothering Sunday' not Happy Mother's Day' or it wouldn't be very well received.The American 'Mother's Day' is celebrated on the 2nd Sunday in May and is a day when people show their appreciation to their mothers but I don't know if it has any more than that to it's origins. Nothing wrong with that, of course.
Originally in England, Mothering Sunday was a day when girls in serv
ice were given a day to visit their Mothers and there are many customs associated with it. One of these is the baking of a simnel cake which the girls used to take to their mothers as a gift on this day. Again it seems that this has now become an 'Easter cake' and you'll find these fruit cakes, sandwiched together with marzipan and decorated with 11 balls of marzipan on top, in the shops at Easter time along with the chocolate eggs. The 11 balls of marzipan are said to represent the 11 Disciples (Judas is omitted).
ice were given a day to visit their Mothers and there are many customs associated with it. One of these is the baking of a simnel cake which the girls used to take to their mothers as a gift on this day. Again it seems that this has now become an 'Easter cake' and you'll find these fruit cakes, sandwiched together with marzipan and decorated with 11 balls of marzipan on top, in the shops at Easter time along with the chocolate eggs. The 11 balls of marzipan are said to represent the 11 Disciples (Judas is omitted).
Where was I? Oh, yes, when I was small we always made a fuss of all mother's in our local church on Mothering Sunday and each mother would be presented with a little posy of violets or primroses.We still do something similar in our parish but nowadays the violets have been replaced with daffodils.
I'm sorry I won't be with both our sons this Mothering Sunday but I'm really looking forward to seeing number 2 son on Sunday when we go to Manchester. He tells me he's booked somewhere for lunch . . . I'll report back later.
We've already reschedule our 'posh nosh' date for a couple of weeks' time and number 1 son will be joining us for that so this year I'll be having two Mothering Sunday/Mother's Day celebrations. Who's a lucky girl, then?
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