View source for Mothering Sunday

{{Short description|Christian celebration during Lent}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2016}}
{{About||the British drama film|Mothering Sunday (film)|the 2016 novel by Graham Swift |Mothering Sunday (novel)}}
{{For|the secular observation of the holiday|Mother's Day}}
{{Infobox holiday
|holiday_name  = Mothering Sunday
|type          = [[Christianity|Christian]], cultural
|image         =
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|caption       =
|official_name =
|nickname      =
|observedby    =
|litcolor      =
|longtype      =
|significance  =
|begins        =
|ends          =
|date          =  4th Sunday in [[Lent]]
|date{{LASTYEAR}}    = {{Moveable date |holiday=Mothering Sunday |year={{LASTYEAR}} |format=infobox}}
|date{{CURRENTYEAR}} = {{Moveable date |holiday=Mothering Sunday |year={{CURRENTYEAR}} |format=infobox |cite=y}}
|date{{NEXTYEAR}}    = {{Moveable date |holiday=Mothering Sunday |year={{NEXTYEAR}} |format=infobox}}
|date{{NEXTYEAR|2}}  = {{Moveable date |holiday=Mothering Sunday |year={{NEXTYEAR|2}} |format=infobox}}
|celebrations  =
|duration   = 1 day
|frequency   = Annual
|observances   = Visiting the local [[mother church]] or the church in which one was [[baptised]]; honouring one's mother<ref name="Diller1990"/>
|relatedto     = [[Laetare Sunday]], [[Lent]]
}}
'''Mothering Sunday''' is a day honouring [[mother church]]es,<ref name="Diller1990"/> the church where one is baptised and becomes "a child of the church", celebrated since the [[Middle Ages]]<ref name="Smith1926">{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Constance Penswick |title=A short history of Mothering Sunday (mid-Lent) |date=1926 |location=Nottingham |edition=3 |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009976838}}</ref> in the [[United Kingdom]], [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]] and some [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] countries on the [[fourth Sunday in Lent]]. On Mothering Sunday, Christians have historically visited their mother church—the church in which they received the [[sacrament]] of [[baptism]].<ref name="Diller1990">{{cite book |last1=Diller |first1=Harriett |title=Celebrations That Matter: A Year-Round Guide to Making Holidays Meaningful |date=1990 |publisher=Augsburg |isbn=978-0-8066-2498-3 |page=35 |language=en |quote=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.}}</ref><ref name="PearsonSzoke2009">{{cite book |last1=Pearson |first1=Sharon Ely |last2=Szoke |first2=Robyn |title=The Prayer Book Guide to Christian Education, Third Edition |date=2009 |publisher=[[Church Publishing]] |isbn=978-0-8192-2337-1 |page=49 |language=en |quote=Mothering Sunday—In England children away from home at school or work were permitetd 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.}}</ref>

[[Constance Adelaide Smith]] revived its modern observance beginning in 1913 to honour Mother Church, 'mothers of earthly homes', the [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Virgin Mary (mother of Jesus)]], and [[Mother Nature]].<ref name="Smith1921" /> It gained popularity in response to the originally American [[Mother's Day]].<ref name="ODNB">{{Cite ODNB|id=103415|title=Smith, Constance Adelaide [''pseud.'' C. Penswick Smith]|last1=Moyse|first1=Cordelia|date=4 October 2012}}</ref> The holiday is often known as "Mother's Day" in the [[United Kingdom]], and has become a secular celebration of mothers and motherhood.

== Mediaeval origin ==
<!-- British English requires the "ae" in "mediaeval" -->Mothering Sunday coincides with [[Laetare Sunday]], also called Mid-Lent Sunday or [[Refreshment Sunday]], a day of respite from [[Fasting#Christianity|fasting]] halfway through the penitential season of [[Lent]]. Its association with mothering originates in the texts read during the [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]] in the [[Middle Ages]], appearing in the [[lectionary]] in sources as old as the [[Murbach lectionary]] from the [[8th century]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wilmart |first1=A. |title=Le ''Comes'' de Murbach |journal=Revue Bénédictine |date=1913 |volume=30 |issue=1–4 |pages=25–69 |doi=10.1484/J.RB.4.01763}}</ref> These include several references to mothers and metaphors for mothers.

The [[introit]] for the day is from [[Isaiah 66]]:10–11 and [[Psalm 122]]:1, using imagery of the [[New Jerusalem]]:

<blockquote>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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burgess |first1=Francis |title=The English Gradual, part 2 |date=1921 |publisher=Plainchant Publications Committee |location=London}}</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>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.</blockquote>

Commentators of the period associate this with the personification of the Church as the [[Bride of Christ]] or with the Virgin Mary.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Higdon |first1=David Leon |title=The Wife of Bath and Refreshment Sunday |journal=Papers on Language and Literature |date=1972 |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=199–201 |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/950908498b6f12eb4101e772a0c0e480/}}</ref>

The [[Epistle]] reading for the day is [[Galatians 4]]:21–31, [[Paul the Apostle]]'s analysis of the story of [[Hagar]] and [[Sarah]], speaking of 'Jerusalem … which is the mother of us all.' While acknowledging the significance of motherhood, Paul understands the story as an [[allegory]], advocating for an understanding of motherhood that transcends the material world and [[fertility]] through quoting [[Isaiah 54:1]]:<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ferguson |first1=John |title=The Christian Year: Fourth Sunday in Lent, Mothering Sunday |journal=The Expository Times |date=March 1982 |volume=93 |issue=6 |pages=174–176 |doi=10.1177/001452468209300607|s2cid=170189479 }}</ref>

<blockquote>
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.
</blockquote>

The [[Gospel]] for the day is [[John 6]]:1–14, the story of the [[Feeding of the Five Thousand]], which prompted the association between Mothering Sunday and the 'Gifts of Mother Earth'.<ref name="Smith1921"/>

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 local [[cathedral]]. These could sometimes become unruly, as recorded by [[Robert Grosseteste]] (Letter 22.7):<ref>{{cite book |title=The letters of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln |date=2010 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |location=Toronto |isbn=978-0-8020-9813-9 |page=107}}</ref>

<blockquote>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.</blockquote>

== Early modern continuation ==
[[File:BaptismMCC.JPG|thumb|On Mothering Sunday, people historically have visited the church in which they received the Christian sacrament of [[baptism]].<ref name="Diller1990"/><ref name="PearsonSzoke2009"/>]]
After the [[English Reformation]], the ''[[Book 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.<ref name="ODCC">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Cross |first1=F. L. |last2=Livingstone |first2=E. A. |title=The Oxford dictionary of the Christian Church |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780192802903 |edition=3 |article= Mothering Sunday}}</ref> In this context, one's mother church was either the church where one was baptised, the local [[Church of England parish church|parish church]], or the nearest cathedral (the latter being the mother church of all the parish churches in a [[diocese]]).<ref name=bbc>{{cite web |title=Mothering Sunday |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/holydays/motheringsunday_1.shtml |website=Religions – Christianity |publisher=BBC |access-date=4 March 2010}}</ref> Anyone who did this was commonly said to have gone 'mothering', a term recorded by 1644:<ref>{{Cite OED|mothering, n.1|id=122656}}</ref>

<blockquote>
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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Symonds |first1=Richard |title=Diary of the marches of the Royal Army during the great Civil War |date=1859 |publisher=Camden Society |location=Westminster |page=27 |url=https://archive.org/details/royalarmymarches00camduoft}}</ref>
</blockquote>

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.<ref name="DEF">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Simpson |first1=Jacqueline |last2=Roud |first2=Steve |title=A dictionary of English folklore |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780198607663 |article=Mothering Sunday}}</ref>

== Revival ==
Reacting to [[Anna Jarvis]]'s efforts to establish Mother's Day in 1913, [[Constance Penswick Smith]] created the Mothering Sunday Movement.<ref name="ODNB"/>

Smith published a play, ''In Praise of Mother: A story of Mothering Sunday'' (1913),<ref>{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=C. Penswick |title=In Praise of Mother. A story of Mothering Sunday. Arranged as a play in three acts |date=1913 |publisher=John Ellis |location=Nottingham}}</ref> as well as ''A Short History of Mothering Sunday'' (1915), which went through several editions.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=C. Penswick |title=A Short History of Mothering Sunday |date=1915 |location=Nottingham}}</ref><ref name="Smith1926"/> Her most influential booklet was ''The Revival of Mothering Sunday'' (1921).<ref name="Smith1921">{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=C. Penswick |title=The Revival of Mothering Sunday |date=1921 |publisher=SPCK |location=London}}</ref> This book has a series of four chapters outlining the different aspects of motherhood that the day should honour beyond a strictly biological one:

* 'The Church – Our Mother'
* 'Mothers of Earthly Homes'
* 'The Mother of Jesus'
* 'Gifts of Mother Earth'

By the 1950s, the occasion was celebrated across the United Kingdom and other [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] countries.<ref name=hutton>{{cite book |title= The stations of the sun: a history of the ritual year in Britain |last1=Hutton |first1=Ronald |place=Oxford |publisher= Oxford University Press |year= 2001 |isbn= 0-19-285448-8 |pages= 174–177}}</ref>

The [[Church of England]], as with other [[Christian denominations]], invites people on Mothering Sunday to visit the parish church or cathedral in which they received the [[sacrament]] of [[baptism]].<ref name="PearsonSzoke2009"/>

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.<ref name="DEF"/> The holiday has also gained secular observance in Britain as a celebration of motherhood, following the American tradition, rather than its original religious meaning.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://inews.co.uk/light-relief/mothering-sunday-what-meaning-mothers-day-uk-date-different-us-explained-1540566|title=The meaning behind Mothering Sunday and how it inspired the UK's Mother's Day celebrations|date=25 March 2022|website=inews.co.uk}}</ref>

== Cakes, buns and violets ==
Reflecting the day's association with the story of the Feeding of the Five Thousand and the reprieve from [[fasting]], various types of cakes and buns have long been made for Mothering Sunday, especially [[Simnel cake]], as gifts to parents.<ref name="OCF">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Davidson |first1=Alan |last2=Jaine |first2=Tom |title=The Oxford companion to food |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780199677337 |edition=3rd |article=simnel cake}}</ref> This is a traditional confection associated with both Mothering Sunday and Easter.<ref>{{cite news |url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/holydays/motheringsunday_1.shtml |title = Mothering Sunday |work = Religion & Ethics |publisher = [[bbc.co.uk]] |access-date = 28 May 2006}}</ref> In [[Bristol]] and some other parts of the world, [[mothering buns]] remain a speciality for Mothering Sunday: "plain yeast-leavened buns, iced, and sprinkled with [[Sprinkles|hundreds and thousands]], eaten for breakfast on that day".<ref name="OCF"/>

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.<ref>_____. "Mothering Sunday". ''Chelmsford Chronicle''. 20 March 1926. 3.</ref><ref>_____. "Mothering Sunday". ''Leicester Evening Mail''. 20 March 1939. 7.</ref><ref>_____. "Violets for Mothering Sunday". ''Worthing Herald''. 15 March 1958. 3.</ref>

== Dates ==
Mothering Sunday always falls on the fourth Sunday in Lent (Laetare Sunday), 3 weeks before [[Easter Sunday]].

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== References ==
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[[Category:Culture of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Culture of Ireland]]
[[Category:Church of England festivals]]
[[Category:Lent]]
[[Category:Christian Sunday observances]]
[[Category:Holidays based on the date of Easter]]
[[Category:March observances]]
[[Category:Mother's Day]]