April | 2021 | Lions and Lilies

Mother’s Day always reminds me of the many happy times I spent with my Mum enjoying picnics, BBQs and trips to the beach or one of many national parks in and around Sydney. It was always a day set aside for my Mum to relax. So, no cooking, washing, cleaning etc, even though she was up early making sandwiches and packing the hamper! But what are the origins of this special event?

Mother’s Day, or Mothering Sunday always falls on the 4th Sunday in Lent and is referred to as Mid-Lent Sunday or Refreshment Sunday, referring to its sense of respite halfway through this season of fasting and penitence. It was also referred to as ‘Laetare Sunday’ where the first words of the mass referenced to Mothers and mothering.

The ‘mother’ of the church—the Virgin Mary—is venerated at numerous feasts during the course of the year, but her presence is widely referred to on Mothering Sunday as the ‘protector of the child, the Mother of Jesus.’

*(Mary, holding back the devil as an angel holds the baby Jesus (Taymouth Hours c.1325–40)*

Simnel Cake, a fruitcake distinguished by layers of almond paste or marzipan, typically one in the middle and one on top, and a set of eleven balls made of the same paste, was traditionally associated with Mothering Sunday. The word ‘simnel’ is derived from Anglo-Norman simenel, ‘fine wheat flour’, itself apparently derived from the Classical Latin simila, a wheat flour.

The eleven marzipan balls used to decorate the cake, symbolise the twelve apostles minus Judas Iscariot or occasionally twelve are used, representing Jesus and the eleven apostles.

Additional customs appeared during the medieval period that included joining a procession attached to the individual’s ‘mother church’ (where you had been baptised) or the local cathedral. The bishop of Lincoln, Robert Grosseteste (c.1170-1253) in his letters advised – ‘‘In each and every church you should strictly prohibit one parish from fighting with another over whose banners should come first in processions at the time of the annual visitation and veneration of the mother church. Those who dishonour their spiritual mother should not at all escape punishment, when those who dishonour their fleshly mothers are, in accordance with God’s law, cursed and punished with death’ (Letters of Robert Grosseteste, transcribed by Manello and Goering, p. 107).

Obviously, one’s position in the procession had a competitive edge!

Mother’s Day, as we know it, rose in popularity in the 1950’s, following the revival by Constance Penswick Smith who created the Mothering Sunday Movement.

To all our wonderful readers, we wish you a Happy Mother’s Day.

Cathy A

Catherine A Wilson co-writes with Catherine T Wilson (no relation). Their first book, The Lily and the Lion, was based upon their true-life accidental meeting and resulting friendship. All four books in their ‘Lions and Lilies’ series have won first place prizes in the Chatelaine/Chaucer Awards in the US and in 2019, The Traitor’s Noose won the Grand Prize Chaucer Award.