Going a-Mothering

It’s Mothers Day on Sunday here in England, something that’s been a mystery for a while as of course, in Australia we celebrate it later in the year.  The local paper was delivered this evening and I read an article explaining about Mothers Day, and I asked Karina “Do you know why it’s called Mothers Day?”Ella piped up and said that she knew and proceeded to explain it to us. They’ve been learning about it here at school.The reason it’s called Mothers Day is that since the 16th Century, it’s been traditional on the 4th Sunday in Lent to worship not at the local church, but instead make a pilgrimage to the regional catherdral, or “Mother church”.  This was referred to as “going a-mothering”.In Victorian times, children working as domestic staff were given one day a year off to visit their families, this was typically Mothering Day.  Usually the cook would bake a cake or they would be allowed to pick flowers from the garden as presents.This is the roots of the modern Mothers Day in England.  I’m now interested to know why Australia and the US have thiers on a different day alltogether. I’m also slightly scared now as it’s the first time I can put my finger on Ella knowing something substantive like this before me.  The other scary thing is that Jasper has been watching over my shoulder as I write this (he’s been typing the fullstops) and he can read all of it.