This year Mothering Sunday is celebrated on March 22 in the UK.
I confess I had never heard of Mothering Sunday until last month. I assumed it had something to do with a day honoring mothers, but when Mills and Boon combined my debut, The Angel and the Outlaw, with Sarah Mallory's More Than a Governess, they entitled the new book ~ On Mothering Sunday.
My curiosity peaked; I delved into the long and rich history of the United Kingdom to find that the origin of Mothering Sunday offered a bit more substance and tradition than the Mother’s Day we celebrate in the U.S.A.
Mothering Sunday is always the fourth Sunday in Lent, a half-way point when the strict fasting would be relaxed for a day. The day dates back to the 1600s when once a year, church-goers would go to their “mother church” or the largest church or cathedral in the area rather than attending their nearby village church. It was the time--once a year--when maids and apprentices were given a day off to visit their mothers. Often children as young as ten years old would leave their homes and go into service. I can imagine that Mothering Sunday must have been quite a day for family reunions and celebrations.
In Victorian times, the maids were allowed to bake a cake to take to their mothers. The Simnel cake became the traditional cake for Mothering Sunday. It is a light, fruity cake decorated with eleven marzipan balls on top that represent the apostles (Judas is absent.) Another tradition was that the children, as they walked home, would gather wild flowers from the fields and roadside along the way to present to their mothers.
I found several recipes online for Simnel cake, but I thought the most traditional one would come from the U.K. It sounds like it would be delicious and I’m determined to make a cake to celebrate Mothering Sunday and the release of my debut book in the United Kingdom. Here’s a link to the recipe I’m using: BBC's
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/simnelcake_792.shtml
I found several recipes online for Simnel cake, but I thought the most traditional one would come from the U.K. It sounds like it would be delicious and I’m determined to make a cake to celebrate Mothering Sunday and the release of my debut book in the United Kingdom. Here’s a link to the recipe I’m using: BBC's
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/simnelcake_792.shtml
Do you have a special Mother's Day tradition you'd like to share? For those who comment, I'll put your name in a drawing for a free, autographed copy of On Mothering Sunday--a two-book prize!
