Mothering Sunday: Church was focus for day

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Writer Catherine Rees, from Chaddesden, who was the first woman chairman of Derby Writers‘ Guild, looks at the long history behind this Mothering Sunday.

A Mother’s Day photograph from the Derby Evening Telegraph archives taken in 1994

WE never used to celebrate it. Not until the Americans came over here during the war.” Every year, people say this to me when they are talking about Mothering Sunday.

And they are wrong. Britain’s Mothering Sunday has nothing at all to do with the American “Mother’s Day”.

Mothering Sunday has been celebrated in Britain for many centuries. As far back as the early baptised Christians, who laid gifts at the altar of their “mother” church on the second Sunday in May, they were honouring the idea of motherhood and their descendants.

From then on, Christians of Britain have continued to honour Mothering Sunday both in church and at home.

In the 16th century, the Church required that people returned to their mother church or cathedral on the fourth Sunday in Lent for that day’s service.

The day became known as Mothering Sunday, not through association with mothers, but because of the journey made to the mother church.

And, in an age when children as young as 10 left home to take up work or apprenticeships elsewhere, this was often the only day in the whole year when families would be reunited.

By the 17th century, it had become a public holiday, when servants and apprentices were given the day off so that they could fulfill their duties to the Church and visit their families.

Money in those days was scarce, so a gift bought for their mother was often a bunch of violets or other spring flowers.

This tradition continues today in many churches, where children take bunches of violets or spring flowers to be blessed at the altar before giving them to their mothers.

When all the family had assembled, they attended church together and, on their return, a special dinner was eaten.

In Derbyshire we had our own traditional meal. It was either loin of veal or leg of pork, served with sea kale and cauliflower.

This was always followed by suet pudding with figs in it. Then came frumenty, followed by home-made wine and mulled ale.

Frumenty was mainly a treat for the children. The preparing of this varied from county to county, but the Derbyshire recipe has been handed down for centuries.

First you parboil whole grains of wheat in water, then strain off and boil again in milk. Sweeten with sugar to taste and flavour with cinnamon or any other spice that you prefer.

A special sauce was made to go with frumenty consisting of egg yolks and brandy.

At this sumptuous meal, the mother was treated as “Queen of the Feast” and all the family waited upon her and afterwards did everything they could to make her day enjoyable.

In turn, the mother used to bake a rich cake to serve at family tea. Many mothers I’m sure still do.

This is called a simnel cake, and is often decorated with a small bird’s nest and eggs made of icing or marzipan: a symbol of home and children.

Simnel comes from the Latin word “simila” meaning “flour of the finest quality”.

And all those hundreds of years ago, that would be the type of flour the mother of many a poor family would strive to obtain to make the cake for such a special occasion.

In recent times, Mothering Sunday has become commercialised and more like the American Mother's Day with offspring expected to give presents and cards to their mothers.

The original meaning has been largely lost. Also today, families are too often scattered across the world and cannot meet to attend church and dine together as a united family.

But we still observe Mothering Sunday, although perhaps not in quite the same ways as in days gone by.

But the reasons for celebrating are still the same.

We wish to honour both our mother church and our mothers, and to give some small token of our love for them.

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