Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mother’s Day to all you wonderful women out there.

So here we are again, it's Mothers Day. The day everyone, from babies to adults are encouraged to appreciate their Mothers by presenting expensive hastily written cards, flowers and chocolates that are bought because we are made to feel that we spend the rest of the year in un-appreciation  and need to make amends.  

It's a day when all Mothers have to work extra hard the day before to make sure everything is prepared for them to relax and take the 'special' day off.  

If very lucky,  mothers get a lovely handmade card along with breakfast in bed, a breakfast that could vary in degrees of perfection, depending if 'Dad' has helped or not.  Let’s give a nod to the brilliant acting of mother's reactions on these occasions for the tasting of cold tea and burnt toast.
It's the day when all the local Sunday restaurants and carvery's get impossible to book because you or the Dads of young children forgot to book a table for this day a few months ago.  

Forgive me if I sound cynical but maybe at least, this is one of the least disingenuous days we celebrate as it does have its original anchor in history unlike many others of the days we are told to celebrate by the card companies.

The History of Mothers Day

Known traditionally as Mothering Sunday in the UK it is celebrated on the fourth Sunday in Lent, marking a historic tradition rooted in the Middle ages.  

Originally, it was a day for returning to one's 'mother church', or parish, which later evolved into a day off for domestic servants to visit their families.

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).

Bit harsh.

The Decline and Revival

The tradition declined during the Industrial Revolution but was revived in the early 20th century, partly influenced by the American Mother's Day.  

Of course due to commercialisation, we find the shops a month or two prior to the day full of twee presents and cards full of trite verses and text written on them like 'Best Mother in the World' etc.  

I always appreciate my children acknowledging the day and often they include a personal message or a phone call.  But I have never felt unappreciated because they let me know all the time how much they care.  I also admit to saving a few of the handmade cards they made as children for mother's day many years ago even though they are now falling apart and all the glitter has gone.  

So if you are a mother of any type and nowadays you can be classed as a mother if you have a pet, I have seen cards addressed to 'Mother of a furbaby,'  if that rocks your boat.  To all, have a lovely Mother's Day.