Mothering Sunday

Daffodils

Mothering Sunday is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent, three weeks before Easter Sunday.

Traditionally, Mothering Sunday was the occasion when English children who had gone to work as apprentices and domestic servants were given a day off to visit their mothers and families and the fasting rules for Lent were relaxed that day.

The origins of Mothering Sunday stretch back to the 16th century when people would return to their ‘mother church’ for a service held on Laetare Sunday, drawn from the Latin ‘laetari’ meaning ‘to rejoice’ - most Sundays in the year churchgoers in England worship at their nearest parish or 'daughter church'.

Children picked wild flowers or primroses to take to church or give to their mothers.

Often they brought a gift with them, a “mothering cake” known as Simnel cake. A Simnel cake is a fruit cake with two layers of almond paste, one on top and one in the middle.