John Ovenston (April 2006)
Mothering Sunday this year fell on 26th March and, as usual, there was a special Mothering Sunday event at 10.30am in St Nicholas Church here in Husthwaite. The day was, of course, a chance for children and young adults to thank their mothers for all they have done and continue to do for them. But it was also a precious opportunity for others of us to remember with gratitude mothers who are no longer here.
Mothering Sunday is not to be confused with the American 'Mothers Day'. In England it has a history going back many centuries. It was a day when children, who had left home to work as domestic servants were given the day offto visit their mother and family. Today children give their mothers presents and home-made cards.
Nowadays, churchgoers worship in their nearest parish church. However, such churches were sometimes a 'daughter' church of another larger parish church. For example, St Mary's at Carlton Husthwaite was a daughter church of St Nicholas. Each year, on one Sunday in the middle of Lent, everyone would visit their 'mother church'. This became the occasion for family reunions - it was quite common for children to leave home for work once they were ten years old! It may be that these reunions gave rise to our Mothering Sunday tradition, when children returning along country lanes would pick wild flowers to take to church or to give to their mothers.
Mothering Sunday was also known as Refreshment Sunday because the fasting rules for Lent were relaxed on that day. A traditional food for the day is simnel cake - a fruit cake with two layers of almond paste. The top is decorated with 11 balls of marzipan representing the 11 disciples. Sugar violets might also be added. The name probably comes from the Latin 'simila', meaning a fine wheat flower usually used for baking a cake. It is also said that a man called Simon and his wife Nell were arguing over whether their Mothering Sunday cake should be baked or boiled. In the end they did both, so the cake was named after the two of them: Sim-Nell!