Mothering Sunday

Mothers Day or Mothering Sunday is on 22nd March 2009 and on the 14th March 2010. Mothering Sunday is the fourth Sunday of Lent. Although it's often called "Mothers' Day" it has no connection with the American festival of that name.

Traditionally, it was a day when children, mainly daughters, who had gone to work as domestic servants were given a day off to visit their mother and family.

Today it is a day when children give presents, flowers, and home made cards to their mothers.

Related Ancient History of Mothering Sunday

Ancient Celebrations of Mothers and Motherhood

People in many ancient cultures honoured mother-hood, through gods: It should also be noted that many old and ancient cultures honoured mothers, motherhood and Mother Nature as the prime force of world.

Ancient Greeks celebrated in honour of Rhea, the mother of the gods

Ancient Romans celebrated in honour of Cybele, a mother goddess, March 22-25 - the celebrations were notorious enough for followers of Cybele to be banished from Rome after the introduction of the Christian Church as the state religion

In Celtic Britain & Europe, Brigid, a localised godhead was worshiped as part God-head or Mother Earth/Nature. Later after the introduction of Christianity, the Celtic God-head Brigid successor was St. Brigid, who became honoured with a spring-time Mother's Day, celebrating the first milk of the ewes after the winter.

Early History of Mothers Day in Britain and Europe .

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, or 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.

The correct name for Mothers Day in the UK is Mothering Sunday.

Mothering Sunday is always the fourth Sunday of Lent however as the dates vary as to when Easter and Lent fall the actual Sunday chosen to celebrate it may vary. 

It is more often referred to as "Mother's Day" and it origin is distinctly different to Mothers Day in America although the sentiments are similar.

In Victorian times, it was a day when children, mainly daughters, who had gone to work as domestic servants were given a day off to visit their mother and family.

Today it is a day when children give presents, flowers, and cards to their mothers.

Mothers Day in America .

In the United States the tradition to celebrate a Mother's Day annually was initiated nearly 150 years ago by Anna Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker when she organised a day to raise awareness of poor living conditions in her community, she believed this would be best advocated by mothers. She called it "Mother's Work Day." 

Fifteen years later, Julia Ward Howe, a Boston poet, pacifist, suffragette, and the author of the lyrics to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," organised a day encouraging mothers to rally for peace, since she believed they bore the loss of human life more harshly than anyone else. 

In 1905 when Anna Jarvis died, her daughter, also named Anna, began a campaign to remember the life work of her mother. 

Anna began to lobby prominent businessmen and politicians including Presidents Taft and Roosevelt to support her campaign to create a special day to honour mothers. At one of the first services organised to celebrate Anna's mother in 1908, at her church in West Virginia , Anna handed out her mother's favourite flower, the white carnation. Five years later, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling for officials of the government to wear white carnations on Mother's Day. 

In 1914 all Anna's hard work paid off when the then President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, signed a bill recognising Mother's Day as a national holiday. 

Initially people observed Mother's Day by attending church, writing letters to their mothers, and eventually, by sending cards, presents, and flowers. With the increasing gift-giving activity associated with Mother's Day, Anna Jarvis became downhearted believing that the day's sentiment was being sacrificed at the expense of greed and profit. In 1923 she filed a lawsuit to try and stop a Mother's Day festival, and was even arrested for disturbing the peace at a convention selling carnations for a war mother's group. 

Despite Jarvis's misgivings, Mother's Day has flourished in the United States . In fact, the second Sunday of May has become the most popular day of the year to dine out, and telephone lines record their highest traffic, as children take advantage of the day to express appreciation to and for their mothers. 

Footnote:

The earliest Mothers' Day or Mothers' Work Days (plural "mothers") began in 1858 in West Virginia

The originator Anna Reeves Jarvis , a local teacher and church member and mother of Anna Jarvis, wanted to work for improved sanitation in her town, during the Civil War, she extended the purpose of Mothers' Work Days to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides in the conflict.

First use in America of Carnation flowers by Anna Jarvis, to celebrate Mother's Day

Anna Jarvis used carnations at the first Mother's Day celebration, because carnations were her mother's favourite flower

Originally wearing a white carnation is to honour a deceased mother, wearing a pink carnation is to honour a living mother

Anna Jarvis and the florist industry ended up disagreeing over the selling of flowers for Mother's Day, as in a flower industry publication, Florists' Review, put it, "This was a holiday that could be exploited."

Criticising the floral industry, Anna Jarvis wrote "What will you do to route charlatans, bandits, pirates, racketeers, kidnappers and other termites that would undermine with their greed one of the finest, noblest and truest movements and celebrations?"

Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day for Peace

Julia Ward Howe set out to establish a Mother's Day in America for different and more political reasons.

Howe became well-known during and after the American Civil War as the author of the words to the " Battle Hymn of the Republic," but was horrified by the carnage of the Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. In 1870, she issued a manifesto for peace at international peace conferences in London and Paris , known as the Mother's Day Peace Proclamation.

In 1872, she promoted the concept of a "Mother's Day for Peace" celebrated on June 2, promoting peace and motherhood through a female agenda. By 1873, women in 18 American cities held a Mother's Day for Peace gathering. Boston celebrated the Mother's Day for Peace for the next 10 years. The concept failed when Howe was no longer paying costs of the promotions.

Howe dissatisfied turned her efforts to working for peace and women's rights in other ways. A stamp was issued in honour of Julia Ward Howe in 1988.

Julia Ward Howe : Mother's Day Proclamation – 1870

In response to her efforts and desire to cease war as a means of winning arguments between Man and Nations.

Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies;
our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
for a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.