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This is intended to be mainly about my crafting stories, as a personal record of what I do. However, I interpret crafting quite widely, not just paper crafting but other things too. I have a butterfly mind and like to change from one thing to another depending on what I feel like on a given day - knitting, crochet, cross-stitch, cards, baking and several others, including my favourite right now, parchment, both traditional skills and Groovi, very relaxing and calming to do.

I have decided to put some structure into my blog so that each day will have something of a theme.
Monday- for Mindfulness; Tuesday - Tidy Up Day; Wednesday - What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday; Thursday - Technique and Tips; Friday - Finish Off Day; Saturday - Start Something New; Sunday - Anything Goes
These themes are not hard and fast and will be changed if I feel the need.

Thursday 7 March 2013

Mothering Sunday or Mother's Day

This is the time of year that I get on one of my strop boxes.  This coming Sunday, 10th March, is Mothering Sunday.  It is not Mother's Day - that is a different celebration from USA.

Mothering Sunday is a two fold celebration.  The first and most known is that young girls, in particular, who were in service away from home, were given the day off once a year to visit their mothers.  They usually picked a bunch of wild flowers on their way, and were often given a small cake or some beef dripping or some other item from the kitchens to take as a present.  Any present or card should be home-made (they had no money to buy things).

The true origins of Mothering Sunday actually goes back much further and deeper than that, though.  To explain more clearly than I can, I found this description on the BBC web site.

History of Mothering Sunday

Most Sundays in the year churchgoers in England worship at their nearest parish or 'daughter church'.
Centuries ago it was considered important for people to return to their home or 'mother' church once a year. So each year in the middle of Lent, everyone would visit their 'mother' church - the main church or cathedral of the area.
Inevitably the return to the 'mother' church became an occasion for family reunions when children who were working away returned home. (It was quite common in those days for children to leave home for work once they were ten years old.)
And most historians think that it was the return to the 'Mother' church which led to the tradition of children, particularly those working as domestic servants, or as apprentices, being given the day off to visit their mother and family.
As they walked along the country lanes, children would pick wild flowers or violets to take to church or give to their mother as a small gift.

When I was a child, we always went back to Walsall, which was where we were born and go to the main church, before visiting my grandparents and my great aunt with a gift of a pot of primroses - real ones not the brightly coloured primulas, and a card.  Once I was married, both mothers would get a pot of proper primroses and a card, and sometime we would all have a meal together.  This was before I got into card making so they were bought, but we always search the shops until we found a card that said Mothering Sunday.  Our children were brought up with that wording too and taught what the real meaning is.  

Having got that off my chest, I must get back into the kitchen and put the bread in the oven.   To all of you out there who are mothers, I will say "Happy Mothering Sunday"

6 comments:

Caro said...

Happy Mothering sunday to you too Maggie. I also celebrate Mothering Sunday at church and make handmade cards for my mother and mother-in-law, but sadly the wording is Mother's Day, simply because I haven't managed to find a stamp that says Mothering sunday.

Hettie said...

I just made my Mum and Mum in Law cards. I knew that the tradition was to visit your Mother with flowers, but not that it was to visit the mother church. Thanks for the insight Maggie.
Better change my rubber stamp now!!
xx

Di said...

Hi Maggie. I'm so strongly with you on this one - I posted a card to my step-mum up in Northumberland today and deliberately made sure I printed the insert with Mothering Sunday, not Mothers Day.

Am almost sure that Simnel Cake was originally baked for Mothering Sunday too and I just found this on the internet:

I'll to thee a Simnell bring
'Gainst thou go'st a mothering,
So that, when she blesseth thee,
Half that blessing thou'lt give to me

Cut and pasted in Olde English, it dates back to the 17th Century.

Hugs, Di xx

Twiglet said...

Great post - we always picked primroses at my Grandmas when I was little. Happy Mothering Sunday. x Jo

Alison Scott said...

Very interesting Maggie, I never knew that. We are not a particularly religious family, so that's probably why.
Happy Mothering Sunday to you when it comes.

NancyD said...

Happy mothering Sunday to you Maggie! I had no idea it was different. Thank you for the history - I love history! NancyD