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Mothers' Day - Mothering Sunday

14 March 2010

Mother's Day in UK is celebrated on the fourth Sunday in the month of Lent. It is traditionally known as Mothering Sunday. In fact England was the first country in the world to dedicate a day for mothers as early as 1600s. Mothering Sunday is a time when children pay respect to their Mothers. Children often give their Mothers a gift and a card. Many churches give the children in the congregation a little bunch of spring flowers to give to their Mothers as a thank you for all their care and love throughout the year. Mothering Sunday is not a fixed day because it is always the middle Sunday in Lent (which lasts from Ash Wednesday to the day before Easter Sunday). This means that Mother's Day in the UK will fall on different dates each year and sometimes even fall in different months. Mothering Sunday was also known as 'Refreshment Sunday', Pudding Pie Sunday (in Surrey, England) or 'Mid-Lent Sunday'. No one is absolutely certain exactly how the name of Mothering Sunday began. However, one theory is that the celebration could have been adopted from a Roman Spring festival celebrating Cybele, their Mother Goddess. As Christianity spread, this date was adopted by Christians. The epistle in the Book of Common Prayer for this Sunday refers to the heavenly Jerusalem as "the Mother of all us all", and this may have prompted the customs we still see today. It is known on this date, about four hundred years ago, people made a point of visiting their nearest big church (the Mother Church). The church in which each person was baptised. People who visited their mother church would say they had gone "a mothering. "Young British girls and boys 'in service' (maids and servants) at the local Manor House or in a Mansion, were only allowed one day to visit their family each year. This was usually on Mothering Sunday. Often the housekeeper or cook would allow the maids to bake a cake to take home for their mother. Sometimes a gift of eggs; or flowers from the garden (or hothouse) was allowed.

Lent - великий пост

congregation - прихожане

Ash Wednesday - среда на первой недели великого поста

refreshment - обновление

epistle - послание

to prompt - подсказывать

maid - горничная, прислуга

Manor House - помещичий дом

Mansion - большой дом, особняк

hothouse - оранжерея, теплица

Watch the cards on this holiday here: http://www.123greetings.com/events/mothers_day/happy_mother/mothersday71.html