Mothering Sunday

BBC Learning EnglishWeekenderMothering SundayCallum: Hello, I'm Callum Robertson and this is Weekender.
　　This Sunday is a special day in Britain. It's not anofficial national holiday andnot everybody will be doing anything different, but it ismarked in the diary. What day is it? Mother's Day orMothering Sunday. And in this programme we'll find outabout the origins of this special day for mothers.
　　Callum: Mothering Sunday is a day when people send cardsflowers and other presents to their mothers. But what's itsorigin? Where does it come form and why is it held on thisparticular day? I asked some of my colleagues if they knew.
　　COLLEAGUESNo I don't actually, can you tell me?
　　No I have to be honest, I really don't. I just take it as aday of celebrating how great all mums are but I reallydidn't think about where it came from.
　　I think it's something to do with Lent and Easter but Ican't remember what.
　　I'm afraid I don't the origins of Mother's Day. I suspectit's probably something religious but Idon't actually know what it is.
　　Well my understanding of it was that it was the day thatall the girls in service were allowed to go home and seetheir mothers. And why it's on this day I can't remember,it might have something to do with Easter but I can'tremember what the story is.
　　Callum: It seems as if most people are not too sure on theorigins of Mothering Sunday, but they think it hassomething to do with the Christian 1 religious period ofEaster – and the six week period before that called Lent.
　　But is that correct? Tofind out for sure I spoke 2 to Father Alistair Coles who isthe parish Priest of St Mary's Church in Bourne Street inLondon. I asked him about the history of Mothering SundayFather ColesThe tradition goes back a long time and there's onetradition that during mediaeval times people and clergytravel to the mother church of the diocese to the cathedralon this day, this coming Sunday, and there's probably goodsense in that the worst of winter weather had gone by then.
　　But none of that really helps us with Mothering Sunday.
　　The earliest reference to it comes in 1644 during the civilwar in this country. There's a Royalist officer calledRichard Simons or Simmons who noted 3 a custom in Worcesterin the middle of Lent when children and God children wouldmeet at the head of the family and have a feast and it wascalled 'Mothering Day'.
　　But all that's quite a long time ago and by the lastcentury this custom had spread throughout the West Midlandsand the Welsh Borders the south west and as far north asLancashire. This is the beginning of the 20th Century, late19th Century I suppose and apprentices 4 and young servantswere often released to go home and visit their families onthis day.
　　Callum: So there was a tradition of families gettingtogether in the Lent period, or visiting their 'mother'
　　church, or the big church or cathedral for their area.
　　However this is a very old tradition. By the end of the19th Century it was common for wealthy families to haveservants living in their homes and on mothering Sunday theywere given a holiday and allowed to go home and visit theirfamilies.
　　These days though, this habit of having servants living inthe houses of their employers has died out. So how has thetradition of Mothering Sunday continued? Well, according toFather Coles with a little help from the United States.
　　Father ColesBy the 1930s this pattern of mothering day and release fromwork for home visits, that was all nearly forgotten. It'srevival was brought about by the determined 5 efforts of aMiss Ana Jarvis of Philadelphia whose guiding passion inher life was a devotion to her mother. Miss Jarvis was alsowell enough connected to turn her private obsession 6 in topublic law. She badgered and harassed 7 the government of theUnited States until it passed a law in 1913 that the secondSunday in May would be a national day of remembrance formothers, Mother's DayAnd the custom gradually spread back across the Atlanticand by post-war times was back in the popular awareness 8 ofthe British but on Mothering Sunday, this fourth Sunday ofLent.
　　Callum: So Mother's Day in the United States began in the20th Century after the efforts of one woman, Ana Jarvis.
　　The influence of the United States came over the Atlanticand in Britain we took the celebration and gift giving buton our original Mothering Sunday date, during Lent, ratherthan in May which is when it is celebrated 9 in the UnitedStates and other countries.
　　Well, that's all from this edition of weekender. I'm off tobuy a nice present for my mother!