Mothering Sunday this Weekend!

[pmcleanj]

I don't know if Anglicans outside of Canada keep "Mothering Sunday" as a Church observance or not: I know in England it is kept as Mother's Day, but I don't know whether that means it's garnered all the trappings of fancy Sunday Brunch and gifts and Hallmark cards that are associated with the May "Mother's Day" in America. Canada has an American-style (or Hallmark-style?) Mother's Day in may, but Canadian Anglicans also keep "Mothering Sunday" on the fourth Sunday in Advent.

It's a nice custom, but I always feel a little left out by it. Marrying a non-Anglican and attending a Lutheran church for non-festival worship, I've pretty much guaranteed that I'm not going to be the recipient of Mothering-Sunday flowers. And with a non-relationship with my atheist mother and a congregationalist-evangelical mother-in-law I don't really have anyone to give them to, either.

Of course, the March Daffodils-for-Cancer fundraiser should be on by this weekend, so maybe I'll just by myself a whole swack of daffodils, and then give them to myself, and feel good about it because I'm supporting Cancer research. And that will solve both the "no-one to give to" and "no-one to get from" problems at one time!:D

[higgs2]

Pamela, no Mothering Sunday here, just the hallmark one in May.

But we do the daffodils thing, and I have two bunches coming! :) I don't think we're getting them until the middle of March though.

[ebia]

I don't know if Anglicans outside of Canada keep "Mothering Sunday" as a Church observance or not: I know in England it is kept as Mother's Day, but I don't know whether that means it's garnered all the trappings of fancy Sunday Brunch and gifts and Hallmark cards that are associated with the May "Mother's Day" in America.
To a fair extent, yes. CofE Churches tend to call it Mothering Sunday, but ...


Canada has an American-style (or Hallmark-style?) Mother's Day in may, but Canadian Anglicans also keep "Mothering Sunday" on the fourth Sunday in Advent.

It's a nice custom, but I always feel a little left out by it. Marrying a non-Anglican and attending a Lutheran church for non-festival worship, I've pretty much guaranteed that I'm not going to be the recipient of Mothering-Sunday flowers. And with a non-relationship with my atheist mother and a congregationalist-evangelical mother-in-law I don't really have anyone to give them to, either.

Of course, the March Daffodils-for-Cancer fundraiser should be on by this weekend, so maybe I'll just by myself a whole swack of daffodils, and then give them to myself, and feel good about it because I'm supporting Cancer research. And that will solve both the "no-one to give to" and "no-one to get from" problems at one time!:D

We don't keep it, but I have known churches down here that do.

[SirTimothy]

We keep Mothering Sunday! On Saturday there's a big thing making special bouquets for the mothers in church, etc, since a lot of our folk won't get it. Of course, its' rather spoilt by the Annual Church Meeting following, but we do have a Mothering Sunday special lunch on too.

Tim

[ebia]

BTW, thanks for pointing it out. I probably wouldn't have noticed that it's this weekend otherwise, and a phonecall halfway around the world is kind of obligatory.

[karen freeinchristman]

I don't know if Anglicans outside of Canada keep "Mothering Sunday" as a Church observance or not: I know in England it is kept as Mother's Day, but I don't know whether that means it's garnered all the trappings of fancy Sunday Brunch and gifts and Hallmark cards that are associated with the May "Mother's Day" in America. Canada has an American-style (or Hallmark-style?) Mother's Day in may, but Canadian Anglicans also keep "Mothering Sunday" on the fourth Sunday in Advent.

It's a nice custom, but I always feel a little left out by it. Marrying a non-Anglican and attending a Lutheran church for non-festival worship, I've pretty much guaranteed that I'm not going to be the recipient of Mothering-Sunday flowers. And with a non-relationship with my atheist mother and a congregationalist-evangelical mother-in-law I don't really have anyone to give them to, either.

Of course, the March Daffodils-for-Cancer fundraiser should be on by this weekend, so maybe I'll just by myself a whole swack of daffodils, and then give them to myself, and feel good about it because I'm supporting Cancer research. And that will solve both the "no-one to give to" and "no-one to get from" problems at one time!:D

It is called Mothering Sunday here in the UK, though it is also called Mother's Day more and more. We do celebrate it in church this weekend and I will be getting some flowers. My mother-in-law is very traditional and has influenced me in wanting to throw off 'Mother's Day' and embrace 'Mothering Sunday'. Simnel cake and all that.

My mom in California has accepted the fact that I don't send any card on 'Mother's Day' because we aren't made aware of when it is through the media here. And she doesn't do it for me, either. But that's OK. We're close enough anyway to know how we feel about each other.

[pmcleanj]

We keep Mothering Sunday! On Saturday there's a big thing making special bouquets for the mothers in church, etc, since a lot of our folk won't get it. Of course, its' rather spoilt by the Annual Church Meeting following, but we do have a Mothering Sunday special lunch on too.

Tim

So, are you baking the Simnel cake?

[SirTimothy]

So, are you baking the Simnel cake?
I'm not. There will probably be some Simnel cake after church though, knowing the St. H's crowd.

[norbie]

Yes the Newcastle Diocese in Australia is celebrating Mothering Sunday and the Mothers Union is handing out Simnel Cake.:D

[Tawny]

We do too! Apparently the children will be doing something special for us Mums on Sunday......

[higgs2]

Okay, I'll bite... What's a simnel cake? :)

[norbie]

It's a light fruit cake with Marzipan on top.
Yaaaaaaam! Thanks Mother Union.

[norbie]

I forgot, BUT please do not get mixed up: Mothering Day has absolutly nothing to do with Mothers Day. It's the mothering of God to us!!!

[ebia]

I forgot, BUT please do not get mixed up: Mothering Day has absolutly nothing to do with Mothers Day.
It does in the CofE.


It's the mothering of God to us!!!
I've heard several (mutually incompatible) explanations of it since I've come to Australia, none of which I've ever heard mentioned in England.

[norbie]

It does in the CofE.


I've heard several (mutually incompatible) explanations of it since I've come to Australia, none of which I've ever heard mentioned in England.
I don't know, ebia, we have to ask Dear Karen as she represent the CofE.
But I am pretty sure it has absolutly nothing to do with our Mothers Day in May.

[Tawny]

Over here Mothering Sunday has been adopted as Mothers day. I still call it Mothering Sunday, but you can buy all sorts of gifts and cards etc with Mothers Day on them.

It is still a church celebration and you tend to find people bring their mums to church and they are given a small bunch of daffodils

Simnel Cake is a small cake with marzipan on it. The tradition says that the cake is both boiled and baked, because Simon and Nelly wanted to make a cake for their mum on Mothering Sunday, and they could not decide whether to boil or bake the cake. Simon boiled it then Nelly baked it. Hence Simnel cake

[karen freeinchristman]

I don't know, ebia, we have to ask Dear Karen as she represent the CofE.
But I am pretty sure it has absolutly nothing to do with our Mothers Day in May.
This is how I've heard it explained -
There are at least three meanings to Mothering Sunday, and there is disagreement as to which is correct!

One is that Mothering Sunday was a day set aside for young girls who worked as house servants to go home and visit their families.

Another is that Mothering Sunday was the day set aside for everyone to attend their 'mother church', i.e. the Cathedral.

And another is what Norbie was referring to - a day to remember the mothering qualities of God.

So it isn't all too clear! And I don't think it really needs to be...

[ebia]

I don't know, ebia, we have to ask Dear Karen as she represent the CofE.
But I am pretty sure it has absolutly nothing to do with our Mothers Day in May.
Whatever the history may be, England doesn't do mothers' day in may (or whenever), it does it on Mothering Sunday. Outside the church that date is "Mothers" day in the UK with pretty much the same trappings as Mothers' Day has here. In the anglican parishes I've grown up in in England it other than calling it "Mothering Sunday" and some tying into something biblical (usually Mary as they were fairly catholic parishes) there was no clear distinction made between Mothers Day and Mothering Sunday.

[ebia]

Over here Mothering Sunday has been adopted as Mothers day. I still call it Mothering Sunday, but you can buy all sorts of gifts and cards etc with Mothers Day on them.

It is still a church celebration and you tend to find people bring their mums to church and they are given a small bunch of daffodils

Simnel Cake is a small cake with marzipan on it. The tradition says that the cake is both boiled and baked, because Simon and Nelly wanted to make a cake for their mum on Mothering Sunday, and they could not decide whether to boil or bake the cake. Simon boiled it then Nelly baked it. Hence Simnel cake
I bought some absolutely beautiful Simnel cake from Tesco's one year (very cheap because they were selling it off on the Monday after Mothering Sunday). 2002 it must have been.

[masuwerte]

We used to observe Mothering Sunday, simnal cake and all, in the parish where I grew up. We stopped in about 1985 when we got a new pastor, IIRC, and I hadn't heard of it being practiced anywhere else. So I'm glad to see that it's still observed in some places.

[JasonV]

My church's calendar has this Sunday as "Refreshment Sunday".

[pmcleanj]

My church's calendar has this Sunday as "Refreshment Sunday".

Yup, that's just another name for the same Sunday -- and also "Simnel Sunday" in some parts of Britain.

I looked up some recipes for Simnel cake, which I've had but never cooked myself. It's characterized by having the almond paste baked into it -- like a layer-cake but all baked at once: you fill the pan half-full of cake batter, put in a layer of rolled-out-and-cut-to-fit almond paste, and then fill the rest of the pan and bake it. That's not what our Mother's Union ever produced: they just made a mung fruitcake. I want to try this. The recipes though say not to use shop-bought almond paste or it melts completely and you loose the layering effect: you have to make your own paste with a heavier almond-to-sugar ratio than the shop-bought paste has.

[pmcleanj]

Incidentally, for all the quaint folklore about "Simon"" and "Nell" coming home to spend Refreshment Sunday with their mum, the actual root of "simnel" is the Old French word simenel, brought over by those nasty invading Normans, who stole the word from the Latin "simila" which refers to fine flour.

[norbie]

This is how I've heard it explained -
There are at least three meanings to Mothering Sunday, and there is disagreement as to which is correct!

One is that Mothering Sunday was a day set aside for young girls who worked as house servants to go home and visit their families.

Another is that Mothering Sunday was the day set aside for everyone to attend their 'mother church', i.e. the Cathedral.

And another is what Norbie was referring to - a day to remember the mothering qualities of God.

So it isn't all too clear! And I don't think it really needs to be...

Yes this is exactly what we celebrate in connection with Mother Union/Caritas here in our Newcastle Diocese.
It must have been a wonderful Custom for the rich to send the house girl home with a cake for her family.
So sad that this got mixed up in some places with Mothers Day, which is a worldly thing, very nice, but lost the origional meaning.

[pmcleanj]

You know from what I have read, the three different interpretations of Mothering Sunday's origin and purpose aren't really contradictory at all.

The custom of returning to the "Mother Church" is ancient, and may be a remnant of church practice from before the Constantinian establishment -- at which very early date, of course, it happened much more frequently than once a year. When the Eucharist was celebrated only by a city's Bishop and the house churches of different sizes were scattered through the city doing their shared mission and nurture work, returning to the "mother Church" to celebrate eucharist together was probably a weekly norm.

In the mission church of the dark ages, on the dark British frontier, returning to the "mother church" was a journey through the wilderness rather than a walk across town, so it would happen less often. But to maintain the unity of the Body, a rule was made that people must return at least once a year. And what better day to do so than a common day in spring when the roads opened to travel, and the air is refreshing without being icy-chill, and everyone was heartily sick of winter-imposed isolation?

Since people were all returning to the same "mother church" on the same day, family reunions were inevitable, so it makes sense that servants might be given that day off to spend the rest of it with their families.

And with the imagery of the mother church, and with all those weepy mothers being reunited with sons and daughters, it just naturally evokes the theme of God's motherly care.

[JasonV]

Great info pmcleanj! Thanks.

[pmcleanj]

Well, the daffodils weren't in yet, so I made do with two small bunches of hot-house tulips for myself -- but then the guests we had over for brunch brought a HUGE florist's bouquet, so my yearning for flowers was quite sated.

The simnel cake was a disappointment: it rose poorly and I must try the recipe again with more adaptations for gluten and altitude -- but the home-made almond paste was a hit and all the little globular "apostles" have vanished, even off the half of the cake that wasn't eaten. In fact, one "learning experience" about the process is that I'm going to have to hide the 2/3 of the almond paste that are supposed to be "reserved" for decorating the finished cake, as when I got home from my ballet-society office-hours I found it had dwindled from about 200 grams to 20 grams. Evaporation perhaps?:o

It was a very nice Mothering Sunday. I love having company for Sunday brunch.

[higgs2]

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/blog_post.asp?id=52599

[pmcleanj]

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/blog_post.asp?id=52599

Hear! Hear!:thumbsup: :D

I love the little classroom full of pointy-hatted bishops learning to write statements!

[norbie]

In fact, one "learning experience" about the process is that I'm going to have to hide the 2/3 of the almond paste that are supposed to be "reserved" for decorating the finished cake, as when I got home from my ballet-society office-hours I found it had dwindled from about 200 grams to 20 grams. Evaporation perhaps?:o
Oh so wonderful this words. Bless this children. I am sure it was just plain evaporation. Thanks for sharing this and for next year dopple the almond paste - promise?:D