Mothering Sunday
Next: March 7, 2027
Come home to Mum.
The story
Where it comes from
Mothering Sunday falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent, three weeks before Easter, so its date moves between March and early April. For centuries the day was about church: people made a yearly journey to their 'mother' church, often the nearest cathedral, and servants and farm workers were given the day off to visit home. The custom faded until Constance Adelaide Smith, who dispensed medicines in Nottingham, set out to revive it from 1913, inspired by news of Anna Jarvis's American Mother's Day but determined to keep the older British date.
How it's celebrated
Families across the UK give their mothers cards, flowers and breakfast in bed, take them out for lunch, or simply come home to visit, as servants once did. Many grown-up children make the trip to their parents' house that weekend. The traditional bake is simnel cake, a light fruit cake with one layer of marzipan running through the middle and another on top.
Did you know
- A simnel cake is topped with eleven marzipan balls for the disciples of Jesus, leaving out Judas.
- The day is also called Mid-Lent or Refreshment Sunday, a pause halfway through the Lenten fast.
- Because it moves with Easter, Britain's day comes about two months before the Mother's Day kept on the second Sunday of May in Malaysia, Singapore, the US and many other countries.
The greeting
Happy Mothering Sunday
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