Mothering Sunday in the UK is the equivalent of Mothers Day in other countries.
It has been celebrated in the UK on the fourth Sunday in Lent...since at least the 16th century For a long time, it has been a day for giving thanks for all the things our mothers do for us.
Mothering Sunday is always the fourth Sunday of Lent. It is not a fixed day because it is always the middle Sunday in Lent (which lasts from Ash Wednesday to the day before Easter Sunday). In 2007, Mothering Sunday was on 18 March.
In 2008 it will be on Sunday 2 March. Mothering Sunday was also known as Refreshment Sunday or Mid-Lent Sunday. It was often called Refreshment Sunday because the fasting rules for Lent were relaxed, in honour of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, a story in the Christian Bible. No one is absolutely certain exactly how the idea of Mothering Sunday began, but we know that on this day, about four hundred years ago, people who lived in little villages made a point of going not to their local church but to the nearest big church. To what was called the Mother Church. And some would go to the nearest city to worship in the cathedral. People who visited their mother church would say they had gone "a mothering."
Young English girls and boys in service were only allowed one day to visit their family each year. This was usually Mothering Sunday. Often the housekeeper or cook would allow the maids to bake a cake to take home for their mother. Sometimes a gift of eggs; or flowers from the garden was allowed. Flowers were traditional, as the young girls and boys would have to walk home to their village, and could gather them on their way home through the meadows. How is Mothering Sunday celebrated in England ? Mothering Sunday is a time when children pay respect to their Mothers. Children often give their Mothers a gift and a card. Many churches give the children in the congregation a little bunch of spring flowers during the Mothering Sunday service, to give to their Mothers as a thank you for all their care and love throughout the year. Mothers Day In recent times Mothering Sunday has in Britain taken on the name and character of the US Mothers Day, but not the date. The original meaning of Mothering Sunday in England has been largely lost. Mothers Day in America is in May and does not change months from year to year like Mothering Sunday does in England.
