Happy Mothering Sunday!
By Gary Marsh
@garymarsh6 (23393)
United Kingdom
March 26, 2017 11:50am CST
Well today is mothering Sunday which may be celebrated at a different time to other countries. These days it is of course very commercialised rather than how it was originally intended. Clinton cards and Interflora seem to do very well here with their over priced cards and flowers.
The celebration of mothers day went back to years ago when many people entered service in some of the great houses around Great Britain working for fairly well to do people. The youngsters were given Mothering Sunday off to return to their place of birth to be with their mothers and to visit their mother church.
The children would often stop en route and collect wild flowers for their mother as a token of their affection. These included primroses, bluebells and any other shrubs or flowers found along the hedgerows.
Sometimes a simnel cake would be baked to celebrate the family coming together on this one day. It was a traditionally baked fruit cake to include a layer of marzipan on the top with either 11 balls of marzipan to represent the 12 apostles minus one representing Judas.
The story of the two loaves and five fishes would be told on mothering Sunday.
For those of us who do not have our mothers with us now it does not mean we have forgotten them. For those of you who are mothers Happy Mothering Sunday to you!
Did you celebrate mothering Sunday today?
The photo is of red hot pokers in Gran Canaria an island in the Atlantic ocean just off the coast of Africa.
12 people like this
10 responses
@garymarsh6 (23393)
• United Kingdom
26 Mar 17
@jstory07 I am not a mother but my wife is and my daughter is so there was some celebration. My daughter made a family tree picture for my wife which is quite cute. She has started a little business making these trees. They are carved from wood and little acorns inscribed with the names of the family. They are in picture frames and look quite neat. Good idea for an unusual gift.
From Little Acorns grow big trees eh!
@garymarsh6 (23393)
• United Kingdom
26 Mar 17
Yes it is the same day! Your mother is wise you should always love and respect your mother!
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (158680)
• Boise, Idaho
27 Mar 17
Nope. Not today. I am in the US. I think it is Sunday, May 14. That is in what? 49 days.
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@celticeagle (158680)
• Boise, Idaho
27 Mar 17
@garymarsh6 .....I wonder how confusing it is for people who communicate with people both in the UK and US. The Daylight Saving Time and Mother's Day are so close.
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@garymarsh6 (23393)
• United Kingdom
28 Mar 17
@celticeagle Yes this year they were one and the same day! Always the last Sunday of March for the clocks to go forward and the last Sunday in October to go back. Mothers day always on the fourth Sunday in Lent.
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@garymarsh6 (23393)
• United Kingdom
27 Mar 17
It has always been celebrated here in the UK on the fourth Sunday of Lent.
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@garymarsh6 (23393)
• United Kingdom
26 Mar 17
Any day you celebrate it will be great! I hope your son remembers you too!
@bluesa (15023)
• Johannesburg, South Africa
28 Mar 17
Hi Gary. Shoot, I have been so busy that I am not certain what month we celebrate in, I think it is in May here though. @garymarsh6 I never knew about the 11 balls of marzipan and what they represented.
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@bluesa (15023)
• Johannesburg, South Africa
29 Mar 17
@garymarsh6 , yes, thank you Gary. And now I have a craving for marzipan. :)
@garymarsh6 (23393)
• United Kingdom
28 Mar 17
There you go Catherine @bluesa we learn something new every day!
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@MarshaMusselman (38616)
• Midland, Michigan
26 Mar 17
I was going to say those flowers look like a tropical variety. Have you visited that area before?
Here in the USA we celebrate Mother's Day, but maybe it was a continuation of the celebration on your side of the pond, I don't really know. We celebrate it in May, on a Sunday. I've never heard the part of sharing some of the gospel accounst on that day before.
Years ago we used to go with my whole family to a restaurant in town, and my brother and his wife would pay for the whole group. Then they decided to host a part at their home. I'm not sure whether we'll pick up my mom to go again this year as it's getting harder for her to maneuver up and down their steps. They live in a tri-level home.
You enter from the garage to a landing and have to go down five steps to a finished basement, or up five steps to the kitchen, living room and the main bedrooms. They have a huge deck off the back with more steps too.
My mom is legally blind and traversing those steps which she can't really see is scaring her so much she doesn't even want to move. It took forty-five minutes to get her down the five steps last summer, so not sure whether we'll try that again or not.
1 person likes this
@garymarsh6 (23393)
• United Kingdom
26 Mar 17
No it is too unkind to force her to do that. If it took that long for her to go up or down the steps she must have been scared witless. Mothering Sunday has been celebrated since the 15 or 1600's here in the UK. The sole reason was for people to return to their mother church and to join their mothers on the fourth Sunday in Lent.
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@garymarsh6 (23393)
• United Kingdom
30 Mar 17
@MarshaMusselman It is so sad none of us know what the future holds of any of us. It is lovely that you care so much for your mother. You have a lovely family!
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@MarshaMusselman (38616)
• Midland, Michigan
30 Mar 17
@garymarsh6 I agree about my mom, but it's difficult not having her with us when we celebrate certain events, especially things like Mother's day. We took her to my nephews house for Christmas this year and she did a bit better than at my brother's home. It may be because the lighting was better in the room she was descending into and the carpeting is white making it easier to see.It still was a slow process though.
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@garymarsh6 (23393)
• United Kingdom
26 Mar 17
Thanks DianneN. The whole family were here for the day!
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@garymarsh6 (23393)
• United Kingdom
27 Mar 17
Well whenever it is celebrated it is always a nice thing to remember our mothers!
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@CRK109 (14558)
• United States
27 Mar 17
Here in the states we celebrate Mother's Day in May. I usually spend that day remembering my mother in different ways. Many times my nephew and I will get together and share our memories of our mothers and laugh at some of the antics they used to do.
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@garymarsh6 (23393)
• United Kingdom
27 Mar 17
Despite having lost our mothers we can still remember fondly the good and funny times we had.
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@CRK109 (14558)
• United States
28 Mar 17
@garymarsh6 Best way to keep them alive and still with us!
