A celebration honoring the mother of the family, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in the months of March or May.

Mothering Sunday, known as Mother’s Day in the States, falls on 11th March this year.

The mid Sunday in Lent is not “Mother’s Day” but “Mothering Sunday”, somebody may point out and then blame America for introducing the former.

In America, Mother’s Day is the second Sunday in May, as proclaimed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914. It is marked on that day because it was the result of a campaign by Anna Jarvis (1864-1948), whose own mother had died on 9th May.

Somewhere beneath the cards and gifts lies an historical and Christian tradition that goes back centuries.

According to the British tradition, Mothering Sunday is held on the fourth Sunday of Lent, exactly three weeks before Easter Sunday. It was originally a time when people returned to the church in which they were baptized or where they attended services when they were children. This meant that families were reunited as adults returned to the towns and villages where they grew up. In time, it became customary for young people who were working as servants in large houses, to be given a holiday on Mothering Sunday. They could use this day to visit their own mother and often took a gift of food or hand-medown clothing from their employers to her. Traditionally, people observed a fast during Lent and did not eat sweet, rich foods or meat. However, the fast was lifted slightly on Mothering Sunday and many people prepared a Simnel cake to eat with their family on this day.