During the sixteenth century, people returned to their mother church the main church or cathedral of the area, for a service to be held on Laetare Sunday. This was either a large local church, or more often the nearest Cathedral.Anyone who did this was commonly said to have gone "a-mothering", although whether this term preceded the observance of Mothering Sunday is unclear. In later times, Mothering Sunday became a day when domestic servants were given a day off to visit their mother church, usually with their own mothers and other family members. It was often the only time that whole families could gather together, since on other days they were prevented by conflicting working hours, and servants were not given free days on other occasions.
Mother's Day is celebrated this coming Sunday in the US
England does not have a Mother's day as such but uses a corruption of the above bygone custom.
The Sundays before Easter are:
Mothering Sunday
Curds and Whey
Palm Sunday
Easter Day
Bob Taylor
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