BS: Mothering Sunday.

Subject: BS: Mothering Sunday.
From: harpmaker
Date: 18 Mar 04 - 09:40 PM

Mothers day this comming Sun' (don't forget!) But 'Mothering Sunday' is something quite different. Does anyone Know why?

Subject: RE: BS: Mothering Sunday.
From: Blackcatter
Date: 18 Mar 04 - 11:48 PM

I never heard of Mothering Sunday and in the U.S. Mother's Day is in May.

Subject: RE: BS: Mothering Sunday.
From: Padre
Date: 19 Mar 04 - 12:25 AM

"Mothering Sunday" is another name for the Fourth Sunday in Lent. It received this name for one of the following reasons:

1) In the Epistle for the day, from Paul's letter to the Galatians, the comparison is made between those who try to achieve salvation by their own works and those who obtain it by the grace of God. The former are compard to earthly Jerusalem who is in bondage; the latter to the heavenly Jerusalem "which is the mother of us all..."

2) It was a custom for apprentices to be permitted to visit their mothers and to take her a 'simnel cake' sometimes called 'mothering cake.'

3) In medieval England, it was the custom to visit the 'mother church' of the Diocese on this Sunday.

Another name for the Fourth Sunday in Lent is 'Refreshment Sunday" coming from the Gospel account of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with 2 fishes and five small loaves.

Padre

Subject: RE: BS: Mothering Sunday.
From: Blackcatter
Date: 19 Mar 04 - 01:05 AM

And we all know that mother's typically provide refreshments.

But what's a simnel cake?

Subject: RE: BS: Mothering Sunday.
From: Blackcatter
Date: 19 Mar 04 - 01:08 AM

Ah, here we go:

Simnel Cake

This cake has now become an Easter cake but originally it was given by servant girls to their mothers when they went home on Mothering Sunday.

Ingredients:

Makes a 20 cm (8 oz) cake
                   
CAKE:
Butter - 225g (8 oz), softened
Light muscovado sugar - 225g
(8 oz)
Eggs - 4
Self-raising flour - 225g (8 oz)
Sultanas - 225g (8 oz)
Currants - 110g (4 oz)
Glacé cherries - 110g (4 oz), quartered
Chopped candied peel - 50g (2 oz)
Lemons - 2, zest only
Mixed spice - 2 tsp

FILLING AND TOPPING:
Almond paste - 450g (1 lb)
Apricot jam - 2 tbsp
Egg, 1, beaten, to glaze

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 150 °C / 300 °F / Gas 2. Butter and line the base and sides of a 20 cm (8 inch) deep round cake tin with buttered greaseproof paper.

Place all the cake ingredients in a large bowl and beat well until completely blended. Place half the mixture in the prepared tin and level the surface. Take one-third of the almond paste and roll it out into a circle the size of the tin. Place it on top of the cake mixture. Spoon the remaining cake mixture over and smooth the surface. Bake for about 2½ hours until well risen and firm to the touch. Cover with foil after 1 hour if the top is browning too quickly. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

When the cake has cooled, brush the top with a little warmed apricot jam and roll out half the remaining almond paste to fit the top. Press firmly on the top and crimp the edges to decorate. Mark a criss-cross pattern on the almond paste with a sharp knife. Form the remaining almond paste into 11 balls to represent the 11 apostles (not counting Judas).

Brush the almond paste with beaten egg and arrange the balls around the outside. Brush the tops of the balls with egg as well. Place the cake under a hot grill to turn the almond paste golden. Decorate with crystallised flowers such as violets, primroses and jonquils, if liked.

Subject: RE: BS: Mothering Sunday.
From: GUEST,Sooz(at work)
Date: 19 Mar 04 - 06:35 AM

We still call it Mothering Sunday and try to avoid the hype. Our daughter goes one step further and ignors it altogether. She designates her own "parents day" and pampers us accordingly.

Subject: RE: BS: Mothering Sunday.
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Mar 04 - 08:09 AM

Oh good that means when I collect them from school today they will be laden with handmade cards and gifts. I just LOVE being a Mum.

Subject: RE: BS: Mothering Sunday.
From: cowbun
Date: 19 Mar 04 - 02:50 PM

Having reserched Mothering Sunday for my PHD I can confirm that it indeed originates from sevents been given the time to make a cake usually Simnel and thus allowed to visit their Mothers on Mothering Sunday to deliver said cake it was often the only day in the year they saw their family.

Subject: RE: BS: Mothering Sunday.
From: ced2
Date: 20 Mar 04 - 08:43 AM

In "The Irish Ballad" Mr Lehrer aludes to cyanide soup, perhaps this is best served on Mothering Sunday; of one think you can be certain, it won't be bettered the following year!

Subject: RE: BS: Mothering Sunday.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Mar 04 - 12:50 PM

That recipe contains some rather exotic ingredients (depending on when the recipe became popular) for someone in the serving class to come by in order to bake for his/her mother. Did their employers provide the materials?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Mothering Sunday.
From: Les from Hull
Date: 20 Mar 04 - 01:34 PM

Well that's a modern Simnel Cake, much fancier than what my mum used to make. Yes I know it was supposed to be the other way round (me baking for her) but I imagine that she wanted to keep her teeth a little longer.

Subject: RE: BS: Mothering Sunday.
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 20 Mar 04 - 02:43 PM

And it is by no means a coincidence that Mothering Sunday falls 9 months before Christmas! The term Mother's Day has really only been used relatively recently; probably rubbing off from US usage but the church still celebrate Mothering Sunday. Sadly it has tended to come down to yet another excuse for shops to try to persuade people to buy ever more extravagent gifts. No doubt I will be bombarded with chocolate (and if I'm not there'll be trouble :0)) but I'll try and be brave and eat it!

Subject: RE: BS: Mothering Sunday.
From: Marion
Date: 20 Mar 04 - 10:02 PM

I read recently, in a pagan-ish account of the yearly cycle, that the spring equinox is when Demeter and Persephone are reunited after being apart all winter, and that "therefore this is a sacred time for mothers and daughters."

So I wonder if there really was a Greek remembrance of motherhood in the spring in ancient days... and if so, if Mothering Sunday could have been derived from it, since mid-Lent will always be in spring.

Marion

Subject: RE: BS: Mothering Sunday.
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 21 Mar 04 - 09:22 AM

The Spring Equinox, festival of Eostre (or Easter as we know it better), The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (March 25th now) are all connected.

The early Christian church wanted to nail some dates down (presumably so they could nail the barons for some extra money & gifts) so they looked at the existing festivals and chose accordingly. The spring Equinox/Eostre celebrated new life and rebirth. This, they decided, was the perfect time to celebrate the visitation of Gabriel to Mary and getting her up the duff. March 25th was chosen as the date that came closest to the existing festivals. This became known as Lady Day, and was possibly the first day of the new year. (When the 11 days was stolen at the changing from Julian to Gregorian calendars, this moved it to April 5th, which is what the Inland Revenue still use.)

Thus, with the annunciation fixed, they could settle Christmas, 9 months later, and conveniently enough, slap in the middle of several existing festivals.

Strictly speaking, in the UK it should be referred to as Mothering Sunday. It is always the middle Sunday in Lent, and that is a moveable feast. Mothers' day is just the abbreviated form of Mothering Sunday. However, there are countries that have a fixed date for honouring maternal parents (and more recently, paternal parents) and these are called Mothers' day.

Mothering Sunday should be used if the date is not fixed, Mothers' day if it is.

LTS

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Mothering Sunday.
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Mar 04 - 10:22 AM

I was awoken at an ungodly hour to shouts of "Happy Mummy's Day" and a paper tiara. Who am I to argue.

Subject: RE: BS: Mothering Sunday.
From: JennyO
Date: 21 Mar 04 - 10:41 AM

Our Mothers Day here in Oz is always on the second Sunday in May. Dunno why.

Subject: RE: BS: Mothering Sunday.
From: mouldy
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 03:18 AM

I returned from church all alone with my little bunch of daffs, as the youngest had been away at a party overnight, and then came the phone call from #1 son in Cardiff, who had e-mailed me a very suspect card the previous day; then two daughters and a prospective son-in law bearing a dwarf cherry tree and ornamental pot that the girls and #1 son had clubbed together for.

I then got taken for lunch across to the pub, but ended up paying for the youngest daughter who had no money! This I don't mind, but she hardly ate anything at all, and went home early as she had a hangover!

Andrea

Subject: RE: BS: Mothering Sunday.
From: ard mhacha
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 03:31 AM

The way things are to-day, I had the best laugh i`ve had for years, a little girl in the local greengrocers aked her big sister ," are these flowers for my Ma that`s living with Da or for my Ma that`s living with us". It really was mother`s-mother`s day.

Subject: RE: BS: Mothering Sunday.
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 06:18 PM

I got a ratty bunch of flowers and some very nice chocolates, but really I just wanted a big hug from my daughter and for her to tidy her room without being nagged at.

Oh, and I paid for dinner.

LTS