Today is Mothering Sunday, also known as Mid-Lent Sunday or Laetare Sunday (meaning to rejoice) and is the halfway point between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. It was the day when our ancestors could appreciate quality time with family, especially their mothers and to be free from the asceticism of the Lenten season if only for 24 hours. This custom of going ‘a-mothering’ was well established by the middle of the 17th century.
On Mid-Lent Sunday, people visited the ‘Mother Church’ which at the time could have been the church of the parish, the church where they were baptised or the cathedral. Offerings were made and in some parishes the ritual of Clipping the Church took place to express the parishioners’ love for their Mother Church.
Clypping the Church is an ancient ceremony that was observed at different times of the year depending on the region. Clypping comes from the Old English word ‘clyppan’ meaning to encircle or embrace. The parishioners would dance around the exterior of the church building in a sunwise direction while holding hands and singing a traditional Clypping hymn. There are places in England that still practice this tradition today; the most well known being in Painswick, Gloucestershire.
‘On Mothering Sunday above all other, every child should dine with its mother.’
Traditionally, Mothering Sunday was also a holiday for servants and apprentices to go home and visit their mothers, bringing with them gifts of violets, Simnel cake and trinkets. In Scotland it was customary to give your mother a fig cake. Children would also decorate their mothers’ homes with daffodils, primroses, violets and other spring flowers. A later tradition of offering your mother a posy of flowers that had been blessed at church became popular too. Of course, no mother was permitted to do any housework on this day!
The Simnel cake, whose origins date back to before the Medieval period, was traditionally baked by daughters. The name Simnel comes from the Latin word ‘simila’ which means ‘fine wheaten flour’. An ancient fruit cake, it was first mentioned in the ‘Annals of the Church of Winchester in 1042 and was decorated with eleven marzipan balls representing the twelve apostles minus Judas.
There are three main types of Simnel cake all named after the towns they come from. The Shrewsbury cake is made of a rich plum mixture with candied lemon peel, currants, sugar and spices and is covered in an almond paste. The Devizes cake has similar ingredients and is baked in the shape of a star with no ‘crown’ on top. Lastly, the Bury Simnel cake is flat and filled with currants, almonds, spices and candied peel. There are plenty of recipes online if you want to have a go at baking your own.
In Norfolk, a plum pudding called the ‘Harvest Strengthener’ was a traditional treat and in Hampshire they ate a wafer-like biscuit on Wafering Sunday. The Bavistock family from Chilbolton, Hampshire, had been making these wafers for generations using specialised iron tongs embossed with a floral design as well as ecclesiastical symbols. The wafer mixture was placed between the tongs and the pattern transferred to the wafers. The wafers were then distributed amongst the parishioners. Another traditional treat for Mothering Sunday was frumenty which is a type of porridge made from wheat grains boiled in milk with added sugar and spices. In her book ‘Folklore And Customs Of Rural England’ Margaret Baker describes an very unfortunate Simnel cake; “the crust is as hard as wood and one elderly and short-sighted lady was said to have mistaken her cake for a footstool.”
Families went to church today after which a meal of roast lamb or veal, suet, a custard or rice pudding with ale or homemade wine was enjoyed.
The Reformation and the introduction of more holidays for servants contributed to the decline of Mothering Sunday. The tradition eventually came back into favour during the second world war when American soldiers stationed in England brought their Mother’s Day custom with them. However, it all became a bit of a muddle due to the fact that Mothering Sunday and Mother’s Day do not actually come from the same historical roots.
The tradition of Mother’s Day sprung forth in 1907 when an American woman called Anna Jarvis began campaigning for an annual holiday in honour of mothers. Her inspiration came from having lost her own mother the year before. Anna’s hard work finally paid off when in 1914 Mother’s Day was appointed by Congress and was added to the calendar for the second Sunday in May. In some places it was customary to wear red carnations in honour of living mothers and white carnations for those that had passed. As the years went by, Anna became more and more disenchanted with the commercialisation of Mother’s Day and even campaigned to have it rescinded. So now we know that Mother’s Day is a secular holiday whereas Mothering Sunday is part of the Church calendar going back to the Middle Ages and is celebrated in March.
In Brittany, France, today was known as Refreshment Sunday and the day was personified as Mrs Mid-Lent (Madame la Mi-Careme). She was thought to fly across the sky while shaking out sweets and other treats from her horn of plenty. In some regions she was a white horse who distributed cod fish to everyone. Parents took their children to the village cross where they would leave offerings of bread and hay for her. Sometimes the hay was burnt to catch Madame la Mi-Careme's attention. She was known to reward well behaved children with coloured ribbons.
‘The lad and the lass on Mothering Day, Hie home to their mother so dear; ‘Tis a kiss for she, and a kiss for they, A chine of pork and a sprig of bay, A song and a dance, but never a tear!’
I had no idea that Mother’s Day and Mothering Sunday were not the same thing. Is this something you knew?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
English Traditional Customs by Christina Hole (1975)
A Dictionary of British Folk Customs by Christina Hole (11976)
The Celtic Calendar by Brian Day (2003)
Folklore and Customs of Rural England by Margaret Baker (1975)
Curious Country Customs by Jeremy Hobson (2007)
A Calendar of Country Customs by Ralph Whitlock (1978)