Mother’s Day and Mothering Sunday – they sound similar and are often considered to be one and the same but are they?
Mother’s Day is a 20th Century tradition that first started in America in 1908 by Anna Jarvis in memory of her mother Ann Reeves Jarvis a devout Christian and social activist of the 19th Century who worked tirelessly for women’s organisations and founded the Mothers’ Day Work Clubs.
These Day Work clubs sought to improve health and sanitary conditions. Among other services, the clubs raised money for medicine, hired women to work for families in which the mothers suffered from tuberculosis, and inspected bottled milk and food. In 1860, local doctors supported the formation of clubs in other towns.
The Baltimore and Ohio Rail road made Taylor County a strategic site during the Civil War. Ann Jarvis urged the Mothers’ Day Work Clubs to declare their neutrality and provide relief to both Union and Confederate soldiers.
The clubs treated the wounded and regularly fed and clothed soldiers stationed in the area. Ann Jarvis also managed to preserve an element of peace in a community being torn apart by political differences. During the war, she worked tirelessly despite the personal tragedy of losing four of her children to disease. In all, eight of her twelve children died before reaching adulthood.
“I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mothers’ day commemorating her for the matchless service she renders to humanity in every field of life. She is entitled to it.”— Ann Reeves Jarvis
Anna’s mother died in 1905 on May 9th and three years later, in 1908, Anna Jarvis held a memorial ceremony on May 10th 1908 to honour her mother and all mothers of Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church.
In the succeeding years, she embarked on a long campaign to make Mother’s Day a recognised holiday and after an arduous battle her diligence paid off and in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson signed a Congressional Resolution proclaiming May 9th (the date her mother died) as a national holiday. The holiday spread throughout every US state and a number of foreign countries.
Anna valued tangible symbolisms of honouring mothers such as the white carnation saying:
“Its whiteness is to symbolise the truth, purity and broad-charity of mothers’ love; its fragrance, her memory, and her prayers. The carnation does not drop its petals, but hugs them to its heart as it dies, and so, too, mothers hug their children to their hearts, their mother’s love never dying. When I selected this flower, I was remembering my mother’s bed of white pinks.”
— Anna Jarvis
During the 16th to 19th Centuries, it was considered important for Christians to return to their home or ‘mother’ church or the place where they were baptised for a service to be held on Laetare Sunday. ‘Laetare Sunday’ is a name often used to signify the fourth Sunday of the season of Lent in the Christian liturgical calendar. The ‘mother’ church was usually a large local church or the nearest local cathedral.
Those who kept this tradition was commonly said to have gone “a-mothering”, although whether this term precede the observance of Mothering Sunday is unclear.
‘Laetare’, Latin in its origin, means ‘to rejoice’ and is so called from the incipit (opening words) of the Introit (“entrance”) of the Mass, “Laetare Jerusalem” (“O be joyful, Jerusalem” – taken from Isaiah 66:10, masoretic (Hebrew) text).
As time went on Mothering Sunday became a day when domestic servants were given a day off to visit their ‘mother church’, usually with their own mothers and other family members. It was often the only time that whole families could gather together, since on other days they were prevented by conflicting working hours, and servants were not given free days on other occasions. They would pick wild flowers along the way to place in the church.
Also, children and young people who were “in service” (as household servants) or apprentices were given a day off on that date so they could visit their families. Mothers naturally became the focus of the family gathering and gifts of spring flowers became a traditional feature.
It was customary to bring a cake (usually the ‘Simnel Cake’) for the mother of the family. The Simnel Cake, which dates back to medieval times, was a saffron flavoured, light fruit cake which was covered with almond paste or marzipan). The name ‘Simnel’ is probably from the Latin word similia which means fine wheat flour. 
By the 19th Century, the custom of Mothering Sunday had begun to lapse.
However, in 1913 Constance Penswick-Smith (1878-1938), the daughter of the Vicar of Coddington, Nottinghamshire was inspired after reading an article in the evening news which outlined plans by an American, Anna Jarvis, to introduce and establish an American festival into Britain to celebrate Mother’s Day on the 2nd Sunday in May, and took it upon herself to revive the celebratory custom of Mothering Sunday.
Constance realised that the festival ‘Mother’s Day’, despite having a similar sounding name to ‘Mothering Sunday’, did would not have any of the Christian values, which made Mothering Sunday so special.
She devoted her life to re-establishing the true Christian celebration of Mothering Sunday through a campaign which resulted, in 1921, with the publication of her booklet “The Revival of Mothering Sunday”. In it she explained:
“…the real meaning of ‘a day in praise of mothers’ was fully expressed in the liturgy of the Church of England for the fourth Sunday of Lent when honour was given to mother church, mother churches (where baptism had taken place), and to earthly mothers…“
Constance Penswick-Smith’s vision was to have Mothering Sunday celebrated by all people. To accomplish this, she enlisted the aid of many of the local groups including the Girl Scouts, the Boy Scouts, Mothers’ Union and even the Queen Mary in March of 1919.
She founded “The Society for the Observance of Mothering Sunday” and set up her headquarters in Nottingham where she designed Mothering Sunday Cards for school children to give to their mothers. She wrote plays and articles to promote interest and made a collection of appropriate hymns for use on the day.
Thanks to her efforts, Mothering Sunday – which had almost died out completely – was re-established and has been widely observed not only in the Church of England but wider society.
Other Names
Mothering Sunday was also known as Refreshment Sunday because the fasting rules for Lent were relaxed that day.