Ancient Tradition

A special day dedicated to celebrate mothers is a tradition that dates back to antiquity, where ancient civilizations conducted elaborate rituals and ceremonies that had great spiritual and symbolic significance.

The modern concept of Mother’s Day has many different origins, although in this country it largely owes its existence thanks to the Christian tradition, but of course Christianity borrowed all of its ceremonies and festivals from older traditions so to understand the origins of Mothering Sunday in Britain we need to go further back in time.

Ages ago the worship of motherhood previously took a less personal dynamic, from worshiping the Earth or mother goddesses to a direct celebration of the Christian Church itself; only in the past few centuries did these celebrations develop a human focus.

The Goddess Isis

One of the earliest records we have of a society that celebrates a Mother deity is that of Ancient Egypt. The Egyptians held an annual festival to honour the goddess Isis, widely regarded as the Mother of the pharaohs.

Often depicted sitting on a throne, Isis is crowned by a pair of bull horns enclosing a fiery sun orb. According to the myth, she earned her status as the Mother of the Pharoahs because she gave birth to fellow god Horus, who went on to defeat Seth the god of chaos and became the first ruler of a unified Egypt.

Magner Mater – Roman Celebration

The ancient Romans also held a place in their spiritual calendar for the tale of Isis, using the event to commemorate an important battle and mark the beginning of Winter. However, the Roman origin of Mother’s Day is perhaps more specifically found in the celebration of the Phrygian goddess Cybele, or Magna Mater, meaning ‘Great Mother’.

Cybele represents the fertile Earth, as well as being a goddess of caverns and mountains, walls and fortresses, nature and wild animals and the Romans celebrated her around the time of the Spring Equinox.

To be specific, the celebration of Magna Mater fell between March 15th and March 22nd, and games were held in Cybele’s honour, referred to as Hilaria. Records show that part of the celebration included a procession through the streets with a statue of the goddess carried at the head, followed by a display of elaborate arts and crafts.

However, Cybele herself is derived from the Greek Goddess Rhea, who was mother to most of the major deities including Zeus, so we need to go even further back than this!

Aside from Rhea, other Hellenistic societies worshipped similar mother deities including Gaia the Earth Goddess and Meter oreie the Mountain Mother. In some of these ancient cultures however, the mother goddess festivals were eventually discouraged or banned as they became wild and decadent.

Mother Church

As you can see, ancient cultures held celebrations of the mother during springtime, presumably due to the direct relation between motherhood and fertility. This was also adopted by Christianity, which has shaped and dominated European culture for the past two thousand years.

According to the early European Christian tradition this celebration fell on the fourth Sunday of Lent, which is the 40 days of fasting that comes before Easter Sunday. Theses early Christians initially used the day to honour the church in which they were baptized, which they knew as their ‘Mother Church’.

This ceremony was held either a large local church, or the nearest Cathedral. The act of going to this ceremony was said to have gone 'a-mothering', and represented the only time whole families could gather together.

Traditionally during the service Galatians 4:26 was always read aloud stating that "Jerusalem which is above is free; which is Mother of us all." Another tradition associated with the fourth Sunday of Lent was the practice of 'church clipping', whereby the congregation hold hands and form a ring around their church, embracing their Mother Church.

Mothering Day

In the 17th Century a clerical decree was made in England that broadened the celebration of Lenten Sunday to include real mothers. This was officially titled Mothering Day and became over time an especially compassionate holiday toward the working classes.

This is because during Lenten Sunday, servants and trade workers were given permission to travel back to their home towns to visit their families. Mothering Day was also welcome because it meant a one-day break from the fasting and penance of Lent.

As a result families across this country enjoyed a massive feast on a par with Christmas dinner, only in this instance mother was the guest of honour and presented Mothers with cakes and flowers. Traditionally Simnel cakes were baked, giving Mothering Day its other popular name Simnel Sunday.

Rose Sunday

Another alternative title for Mothering Sunday is Rose Sunday, represented by the purple robes of Lent being replaced in some churches by rose-coloured ones. The title also refers to the tradition of posies of flowers being collected and distributed at the service originally to all the mothers, but in more recent years this has been extended to all women in the congregation.

This Sunday was also once known as ‘the Sunday of the Five Loaves’, referring to Jesus miracle of feeding of the five thousand with five loaves and two fishes. The relevant passage from the bible was read out accordingly.

Today Mother’s Day is celebrated the world over, regardless of religion and culture. After all, the Mother represents the nurturing, protecting and guiding force to us all and who wouldn’t want to rejoice in that?