Mothering Sunday Origin

[PanadTe]

Mothering Sunday in the UKMother’s Day in the UK has its origins in the 16th century custom of ‘Mothering Sunday’, which fell on the fourth Sunday of Lent. That’s three Sundays before Easter, and the tie-in with the church calendar is why it’s always a bit confusing trying to work out when it is each year. The tradition was that you paid your ‘mother church’ a visit - either the church where you were christened, or your parish church, or the nearest cathedral - and you were said to be ‘going a-mothering’ when you did so.

On this day, which came to be known as Mothering Sunday, servants were given the day off to go back to the parish they were born, with children and other family members also joining in. Because this occasion was a rare opportunity for a family get-together, the focus of the day gradually shifted to visiting not just the mother church, but one’s own mother.

Thank you for writing that out.
It does surprise me how many people seem not to know any of this.

Thank you for womansplaining this.

It was just a kind bit of historical info. Don’t read in to it too much

lots of people don't know this. I didn't till relatively recently, despite growing up in a Christian family, the church did a special Mothering Sunday service where all the kids got a bunch of flowers to give to their mums, never a word of the origins.

So really nothing like 'womansplaining' which would be a woman telling others things they already knew, probably better than she does.

Exactly Errol.
What an odd response to a post, Veni.
It is something that lots of people don't know.
If you did, you could just scroll past.

It’s likely because of the ways it’s written? I just copied it from the net after reading it myself. I should have prefaced that

I knew most of that, but it was nice to have it set out, The chapel I go to gives every adult woman a little posy of flowers.
One I went to called every woman up to the front who had a mother with them in the congregation. It was very sweet to see 60& 70yr olds with 80 or 90ish old ladies together.

Thanks OP, I didn't know that (I'm American).

Thank you 😊

Might be worth crediting the website you copied it from, that's the polite thing to do.

So nice to hear it referred to as 'Mothering Sunday'. I hate the term 'Mother's Day'.

I've always known it as Mothering Sunday. The challenge of finding a card referring to it as such got harder and harder the older I got 😢.

Yes l posted this the other day.

Thank you, my Vicar explained this really clearly on Sunday and despite going to church for years, I didn't know- well, not all of it. He also said it was MotherING so anyone in the church family (which is outside the walls too) who has played a nurturing role, men and women

This is why I don't celebrate it, being Jewish! Churchy origins.