The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews reminds Christians that they are surrounded by a great “cloud of witnesses.” (NRSVA) That “cloud” has continued to grow in size since then. In this monthly column we will be thinking about some of the people and events, over the past 2000 years, that have helped make up this “cloud.” People and events that have helped build the community of the Christian church as it exists today.
In the UK, ‘Mothering Sunday’ is traditionally celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent. As Lent, in the church liturgical calendar, is decided by the date of Easter (a moveable feast), there is, consequently, no set date on which ‘Mothering Sunday’ is celebrated. Like Easter, it too moves but it is usually on a Sunday in March.
It is sometimes now called ‘Mother’s Day,’ which is a borrowing from US practice, but the two events are different. The US-inspired ‘Mother’s Day’ started in the early twentieth century and is celebrated on the second Sunday in May. It has since been joined by ‘Father’s Day’ and ‘Grandparents’ Day,’ although, arguably, only ‘Father’s Day’ competes in terms of commercial popularity.
To return to the Sunday focused on mothers. If one has a calendar or diary, one can tell if it is UK- or US-inspired by whether it uses the term ‘Mothering Sunday’ or ‘Mother’s Day’ and on which particular Sunday it places the event.
Globally, other nations also have equivalent days connected to motherhood and these are celebrated on a variety of dates. While many of these are now largely secular events, a number are rooted in different Christian faith communities which use them as a means to celebrate ‘Mother Church,’ the ‘Virgin Mary’ and/or God’s gift of motherhood.
It should also be noted that other (non-Christian) historic religious communities – including those of Ancient Greece and Rome – also had events that focused on motherhood and its significance. This is not surprising given that motherhood – as fatherhood – is a key aspect of common human experience and has often been the focus of religious devotion in some form, or used as a means by which spiritual concepts can be expressed.
What is most significant is that the particular tradition of ‘Mothering Sunday’ – as found in the UK, Ireland and some Commonwealth countries – has its roots in an event that is much older than the US celebration and the commercial card-giving and gift-giving that the US event has inspired. And these roots – where we can identify them from the sparse medieval and Early Modern sources – express Christian beliefs and practices.
The medieval roots of ‘Mothering Sunday’
There is no simple answer as to how old Mothering Sunday is. However, there is evidence that it originally was a day on which Christians returned to the church in which they were baptised, as this was regarded as their ‘Mother Church.’
Another possibility is that this was rooted in a time when dependent churches recognised and celebrated their relationship with the senior church in the area. In the Early Medieval period the establishment of churches in any given area was usually based on a ‘minster church’ which served a large region. Over time, these large areas became divided up into (smaller) parishes, with their own churches. However, these later churches maintained their connection with the older – ‘Mother’ – church and this was often expressed in certain rights regarding baptism and burial which took place at the older church. These eventually passed to the parish churches, but a sense of older connections often persisted for centuries and was, at times, enforced by church law, including penalties for infringing on these ‘Mother Church’ rights.
Alternatively, the ‘Mother Church’ in question may have been the cathedral church, which was the chief church in a diocese that included many other churches which were placed under the bishop’s authority.
These ‘Mother Church’ associations may have been encouraged by the tradition of focusing, on that mid-Lent Sunday, on the scriptural passage: “Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the other woman [Sarah] corresponds to the Jerusalem above; she is free, and she is our mother” (Galatians 4:25–26, NRSVA).
In medieval Latin this was expressed as “Jerusalem mater omnium’ (Jerusalem mother of all). In this way, Jerusalem, as mother, was associated with the universal church community as our nurturing mother. This resonates with the feminine references to the church as the ‘bride of Christ,’ in Revelation 19:7, 21:2, 21:9, 22:17.
The introit on that Sunday included Psalm 122:1, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’” (NRSVA). This became connected to events taking place at local cathedrals in which people travelled to this ‘Mother Church.’
Evidence from Lichfield, in the West Midlands, reveals mid-Lent medieval processions to the cathedral there, which took place until the sixteenth-century Reformation. Whether this occurred in other cathedrals, on this particular Sunday, is less clear but may well have done, since such processions certainly occurred. Robert Grosseteste, the thirteenth-century bishop of Lincoln, criticised parishes who fought each other over whose church banner should have precedence in these processions to the cathedral! Clearly, the event at Lincoln could get rather competitive and unruly.
In this medieval period, the marking of this significant mid-Lent Sunday was associated with particular celebratory food. This may come as a surprise, given the medieval tradition of a Lenten fast, but it needs to be remembered that Sundays were/are not fast days in this 40-days period. As the celebration day of Christ’s resurrection, Sunday was always a ‘feast’ day, not a ‘fast’ day. Even today – for those who give up something for Lent – the tradition indicates that Sundays are exempt from the ‘fast.’
Mothering Sunday coincides with Laetare Sunday, which is also known as ‘Mid-Lent Sunday’ or ‘Refreshment Sunday.’ This was a break in fasting that occurred halfway through the penitential season of Lent.
In the medieval period this Sunday became associated with the eating of ‘Simnel cake.’ Now associated with Easter, this marzipan fruit cake was originally a different kind of luxury and was eaten on Mothering Sunday. Its name may have been derived from a Latin word that referred to fine white flour used to make a fancy bread. By the seventeenth century this had become a boiled pudding containing fruit, almonds and spices. By the late nineteenth century this had developed into a fruit cake with a marzipan middle layer and decorated with sugared nuts or fruit. Then, in the middle of the twentieth century, eleven marzipan balls were placed on top to represent the eleven apostles (minus Judas) and its consumption was moved from Mothering Sunday to Easter.
The Early-Modern appearance of a family-focused Mothering Sunday
While Mothering Sunday has medieval roots, its first well-documented appearance occurs in the seventeenth century and was then associated with a tradition local to the Severn Valley region of western England. And this had seen a shift from the focus on ‘Mother Church’ to mothers and families.
During the British Civil Wars, a royalist officer named Richard Symonds came across a custom at Worcester which was unknown to this Essex-man. In 1644, he wrote of an event which occurred every year on the “Mid-Lent Sunday” when extended families met, as children and godchildren came home to the “head and chief of the family and have a feast.” The fact that this was both a family day and one particularly associated, in some way, with mothers was revealed in the fact that those living in the vicinity of Worcester called it “the Mothering-day.”
Later records indicate that servants were given this Sunday off, in order to visit their mother-church in the company of their mothers and other family members. This rather neatly combined both the medieval tradition and the family-focused one that seems to have been emerging at this time. A poem, published in 1648 and written by Robert Herrick, contained the line “I’le to thee a simnell bring, ‘Gainst thou go’st a mothering.” At the time he wrote this – though a Londoner – he was probably living in Devon. However, the poem was entitled ‘A Ceremonie in Glocester.’ The reference to Gloucester places it in the same Severn Valley region as that recorded in Worcester in 1644.
By the nineteenth century the family-focused tradition was recorded across the West Midlands and the Welsh borderlands. It was also recorded in Gloucestershire, Somerset and Devon, with outliers in Lancashire and Leicestershire. In most of these places it had become a day-off for servants and apprentices to go home. Eating simnel cake was popular in many of these places, with some regional variations in what was thought to be appropriate food to celebrate the day at home.
The re-invention of Mothering Sunday
By the 1930s, the Mothering Sunday tradition seems to have almost died out across the country. This had been accelerated by the massive reduction in the numbers of live-in servants since the end of the First World War.
However, it was revived when US soldiers were stationed in the UK during the Second World War and brought with them the American Mother’s Day version (which had become a national holiday in the US in 1913). This prompted renewed interest in the older tradition – which was encouraged by card manufacturers in the UK. Yet, true to its historical roots, in the UK it was fixed on the mid-Lent Sunday and did not migrate into May to imitate the US event. It was thus a fusion of commercial interests – card makers, florists and confectioners – with a seventeenth-century tradition that had much older (medieval) roots.
Today, Mothering Sunday is well-established, and many families will come together to be with mum, or maybe post flowers and a card to a distant mum. In many churches on Mothering Sunday daffodils will be distributed to the mums. At my church we take the opportunity to thank God that his love is the pattern for all human love and care; say thank you to God for mums; give flowers to all the women in the congregation; and use the opportunity to celebrate all the women in the church regardless of whether they are mothers or not.
We know that the day is not easy for some members, who may not have had a great relationship with their mother, no longer have a mother living, or do not have children (the same is true of Father’s Day). But we try to make it a day which everyone can learn from and enjoy. At its heart this seems very much in line with the historical roots of the day in celebrating ‘Mother Church’ – living out a life of care and compassion – as the ‘bride of Christ’ (a term which is not limited by gender in its application). And it is, of course, a great day to celebrate and thank mums.
So, Happy Mothering Sunday!
Martyn Whittock is a historian, commentator, columnist and a Licensed Lay Minister in the Church of England. The author, or co-author, of fifty-seven books, his work includes: Daughters of Eve (2021), Jesus the Unauthorized Biography (2021), The End Times, Again? (2021), The Story of the Cross (2021), Apocalyptic Politics (2022) and American Vikings: How the Norse Sailed into the Lands and Imaginations of America (2023). His latest book (published in April) is: Vikings in the East. From Vladimir the Great to Vladimir Putin – the Origins of a Contested Legacy in Russia and Ukraine.
