Mother's Day UK for Mums and Grandmas - gift giving and traditions

Mother's Day UK for Mums and Grandmas - gift giving and traditions

Mother's Day is a day put aside for us to remember and celebrate the maternal bond. The date varies around the world, in the UK it was traditionally referred to as Mothering Sunday andis celebrated this year, 2011, on April 3rd wheras in America, it is Mother's Dayand falls in the 2nd week of May.

Mothering Sunday or Mother's Day? Really, it probably doesn't make much difference what you prefer to call it, the important issue is that it is a day for Mums and Grandmasto feel cherished and for children to remember the unconditional love a mother has for her child.

We've been researching the historyof Mother's Day (obviously a very big event in the Net2Nana calender!) and thought we'd share with you a little bit of what we found out.

Mothering Sunday always falls on the 4th Sunday of Lent. 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.

It's incredibly moving to imagine children as young as 10 being sent to live, "in service", away from home and looking forward to the one day they were allowed to go home to visit Mum!

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 - 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.) It also gave families a welcome break from the fasting and penance of Lent and was the day when for once the hard working Mum could be guest of honour at her own table!

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.

Sometimes a kindly cook or housekeeper would give the children a loaf of bread or a basket of fresh eggs to take home, or the children would be allowed to help bake a cake(traditionaly a simnel cake).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.

Nowadays of course there's a wide choice of lovely gifts to help you celebrate Mother's day with your Mum or Grandma, we hope you enjoy looking at the selection we have at Net2Nana.

We'd love to hear any comments you might have and to know if any of your Grandmothers, or Great-Grandmothers,have any special memories of Mothering Sunday many years ago.

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