I found this on a School website:
[quote] "Mothering Sunday was also known as 'Refreshment Sunday', Pudding Pie Sunday (in Surrey, England) or 'Mid-Lent Sunday'. It was a day in Lent when the fasting rules were relaxed, in honour of the 'Feeding of the Five Thousand', a story in the Christian Bible.
Roman Spring Festival
The more usual name was Mothering Sunday. No one is absolutely certain exactly how the name of Mothering Sunday began. However, one theory is that the celebration could have been adopted from a Roman Spring festival celebrating Cybele, their Mother Goddess.
Chiddingstone ChurchMother Church
As Christianity spread, this date was adopted by Christians. The epistle in the Book of Common Prayer for this Sunday refers to the heavenly Jerusalem as "the Mother of all us all", and this may have prompted the customs we still see today.
It is known on this date, about four hundred years ago, people made a point of visiting their nearest big church (the Mother Church). The church in which each person was baptised.
Cathedrals are the 'mother church' of all other churches in an area ('diocese'). Canterbury Cathedral is pictured below.
Canterbury CathedralPeople who visited their mother church would say they had gone "a mothering."
Girls in Service
Young British girls and boys 'in service' (maids and servants) at the local Manor House or in a Mansion, were only allowed one day to visit their family each year. This was usually on Mothering Sunday.
For some this could be a significant journey since their mother may have lived some distance away, indeed another town altogether from the Manor where they were put in to service. Often the housekeeper or cook would allow the maids to bake a cake to take home for their mother. Sometimes a gift of eggs; or flowers from the garden (or hothouse) was allowed.
"Maids were put in to service for the Landed Gentry and paid a small salary but boarded free of charge. They dealt with everything from cleaning,washing to cooking, so to have a day of rest and be able to visit their mother was quite a privelledge."
by Chris Richards, a visitor to our website
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