| Mothering Sunday | |
|---|---|
| Observances | Visiting the localmother church or the church in which one wasbaptised; honouring one's mother[1] |
| Date | 4th Sunday inLent |
| 2024 date | 10 March |
| 2025 date | 30 March |
| 2026 date | 15 March |
| 2027 date | 7 March |
| Frequency | Annual |
| Related to | Laetare Sunday,Lent |
Mothering Sunday is a day honouringmother churches,[1] the church where one is baptised and becomes "a child of the church", celebrated since theMiddle Ages[2] in theUnited Kingdom,Ireland and someCommonwealth countries on thefourth Sunday in Lent. On Mothering Sunday, Christians have historically visited their mother church—the church in which they received thesacrament ofbaptism.[1][3]
Constance Adelaide Smith revived its modern observance beginning in 1913 to honour Mother Church, 'mothers of earthly homes', theVirgin Mary (mother of Jesus), andMother Nature.[4] It gained popularity in response to the originally AmericanMother's Day.[5] The holiday is often known as "Mother's Day" in theUnited Kingdom, and has become a secular celebration of mothers and motherhood.
Mothering Sunday coincides withLaetare Sunday, also called Mid-Lent Sunday orRefreshment Sunday, a day of respite fromfasting halfway through the penitential season ofLent. Its association with mothering originates in the texts read during theMass in theMiddle Ages, appearing in thelectionary in sources as old as theMurbach lectionary from the8th century.[6] These include several references to mothers and metaphors for mothers.
Theintroit for the day is fromIsaiah 66:10–11 andPsalm 122:1, using imagery of theNew Jerusalem:
Rejoice ye with Jerusalem; and be ye glad for her, all ye that delight in her: exult and sing for joy with her, all ye that in sadness mourn for her; that ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations.Psalm:I was glad when they said unto me, We will go into the house of the Lord.[7]
Laetare Hierusalem et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam: gaudete cum laetitia, qui in tristitia fuistis, ut exsultetis et satiemini ab uberibus consolationis vestrae.Psalmus: Laetatus sum in his quae dicta sunt mihi: in domum Domini ibimus.
Commentators of the period associate this with the personification of the Church as theBride of Christ or with the Virgin Mary.[8]
TheEpistle reading for the day isGalatians 4:21–31,Paul the Apostle's analysis of the story ofHagar andSarah, speaking of 'Jerusalem … which is the mother of us all.' While acknowledging the significance of motherhood, Paul understands the story as anallegory, advocating for an understanding of motherhood that transcends the material world andfertility through quotingIsaiah 54:1:[9]
Rejoice, you childless one, you who bear no children, burst into song and shout, you who endure no birth pangs;for the children of the desolate woman are more numerous than the children of the one who is married.
TheGospel for the day isJohn 6:1–14, the story of theFeeding of the Five Thousand, which prompted the association between Mothering Sunday and the 'Gifts of Mother Earth'.[4]
Inspired by the 'We will go into the house of the Lord'psalm, mediaeval people began to make processions to their local 'mother church' on the day, typically the localcathedral. These could sometimes become unruly, as recorded byRobert Grosseteste (Letter 22.7):[10]
In each and every church you should strictly prohibit one parish from fighting with another over whose banners should come first in processions at the time of the annual visitation and veneration of the mother church. […] Those who dishonour their spiritual mother should not at all escape punishment, when those who dishonour their fleshly mothers are, in accordance with God's law, cursed and punished with death.
After theEnglish Reformation, theBook of Common Prayer continued to assign the same readings. During the 16th century, Christians continued to return to their local mother churches for a service held on Laetare Sunday.[11] In this context, one's mother church was either the church where one was baptised, the localparish church, or the nearest cathedral (the latter being the mother church of all the parish churches in adiocese).[12] Anyone who did this was commonly said to have gone 'mothering', a term recorded by 1644:[13]
Every Midlent Sunday is a great day at Worcester, when all the children and godchildren meet at the head and cheife of the family and have a feast. They call it the Mothering-day.[14]
In later times, Mothering Sunday became a day when domestic servants were given a day off to visit their mother church, usually with their own mothers and other family members.[15]
Reacting toAnna Jarvis's efforts to establish Mother's Day in 1913,Constance Penswick Smith created the Mothering Sunday Movement.[5]
Smith published a play,In Praise of Mother: A story of Mothering Sunday (1913),[16] as well asA Short History of Mothering Sunday (1915), which went through several editions.[17][2] Her most influential booklet wasThe Revival of Mothering Sunday (1921).[4] This book has a series of four chapters outlining the different aspects of motherhood that the day should honour beyond a strictly biological one:
By the 1950s, the occasion was celebrated across the United Kingdom and otherCommonwealth countries.[18]
TheChurch of England, as with otherChristian denominations, invites people on Mothering Sunday to visit the parish church or cathedral in which they received thesacrament ofbaptism.[3]
In modern Britain, 'Mother's Day' has become another term for Mothering Sunday in commercial contexts due to American influence, but it continues to be held during Lent.[15] The holiday has also gained secular observance in Britain as a celebration of motherhood, following the American tradition, rather than its original religious meaning.[19]
Reflecting the day's association with the story of the Feeding of the Five Thousand and the reprieve fromfasting, various types of cakes and buns have long been made for Mothering Sunday, especiallySimnel cake, as gifts to parents.[20] This is a traditional confection associated with both Mothering Sunday and Easter.[21] InBristol and some other parts of the world,mothering buns remain a speciality for Mothering Sunday: "plain yeast-leavened buns, iced, and sprinkled withhundreds and thousands, eaten for breakfast on that day".[20]
Numerous newspapers across many decades attest to children gathering violets to present to their mothers on this day. In urban settings, churches supply the violets to the children.[22][23][24]
Mothering Sunday always falls on the fourth Sunday in Lent (Laetare Sunday), 3 weeks beforeEaster Sunday.
In England, Mothering Sunday is a day to honor both your mother church and your own mother. In the past, young people working away from home visited their mothers and the churches where they were baptized on Mothering Sunday.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Mothering Sunday—In England children away from home at school or work were permitted to go home to visit their mothers and/or to visit their cathedral or mother church on this fourth Sunday of Lent. Today, many cathedrals and "mother" churches invite all who had been baptized there to return "home" to worship.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)