Mothering Sunday

English

Etymology

From the former British custom of visiting mother churches (q.v.) at Mid-Lent, which by the English Civil War had passed on to servants receiving leave to go a-mothering, visiting and providing small gifts to their families. Revived as a national tradition in the early 20th century after the model of Mother's Day in the United States.

Proper noun

Mothering Sunday

1. (UK) The fourth Sunday of Lent, three Sundays before Easter, now especially as a day to honor one's mother.
   • 1838, William Howitt, Rural Life in England, page 159:

     ...on Mothering Sunday, when all the ‘servant-lads’ and ‘servant wenches’ are, in some parts of the country, set at liberty for a day, to go and see their mothers...

   • 1880, Arthur Joseph Munby, Dorothy, page 66:

     Mary, it's twenty good year—twenty-one, come Mothering Sunday—'Since he was here at the farm.

   • 1894 March, Mary B. Merrill, “Mothering Sunday”, in Mary Mapes Dodge, editor, St. Nicholas: a monthly magazine for boys and girls‎^[1], volume 21, part 1, page 388:

     "Mothering Sunday," the fourth Sunday in Lent, when absent sons and daughters—particularly the young apprentices—would return to their homes with some little present for both parents, but more especially for the mother... Imagine the... pride of the mother in the simple gift, and the admiration of the small brothers and sisters who gathered around and longed for the time when they also would be out in the great unknown world and could come "a-mothering."

   • 2007, Susan Elkin, 100 Ideas for Secondary School Assemblies, page 12:

     Mothering Sunday is a British, Christian tradition. The Americans celebrate ‘Mother's Day’ later in the year.

Synonyms

• Mid-Lent, Mid-Lent Sunday
• Mothering Day, Mother's Day (UK & Ireland)
• Laetare Sunday (usual liturgical name in Catholicism & Anglicanism)
• Simnel Sunday, Refection Sunday, Refreshment Sunday (dated, in reference to the customary relaxation of Lenten abstention on this day)
• Rose Sunday, Sunday of the Five Loaves (dated, in reference to Catholic practices on this day)
• Jerusalem Sunday

References

• Howse, Christopher, "The True Origins of Mothering Sunday", The Telegraph (8 Mar 2013).
• “Mothering Sunday, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2002.
• “Mothering Sunday”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.