Talk:Mothering Sunday

Contradiction
The first sentence is contradicted by the links provided at the bottom of the article. Whatever the origins of Mothering sunday, it does seem to have become be a celebration of motherhood. One of the links even suggests
 * The early Christians in England celebrated the Mother's festival on the fourth Sunday of Lent (the 40 day period leading up to Easter) to honor Mary, the mother of Christ

ISn't this a celebration of motherhood?

86.134.38.124 16:43, 19 March 2006 (UTC)


 * Absolutely correct. Mothering Sunday IS a celebration of motherhood. Its origins are now obscure but the celebration is possibly derived from parishioners visitng their "mother church". Nowadays it's a celebration of motherhood - breakfast in bed and all that. The way this article reads at the moment is rubbish. I'll fix it in due course if no-one else does. A good reference is The Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore (ISBN 019691045). 21:18, 19 March 2006 (UTC)


 * Absolutely, it would read better as "was not originally a celebration of Motherhood" Ashamanic 18:35, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

I do apologise for attempting to fix the contradiction without having taken a look in here to see if there were already notes on the matter Arcturus is right, it needs to be expressed more clearly; I was attempting a fix based on the somewhat inadequate source-reference, which is written from an Irish perspective. g88keeper (talk) 22:22, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

UK only?
Tsn't Mothering Sunday only/mainly a UK celebration? If so I suggest writing this into the early part of the article. Do all the historical events/practices mentioned relate to the uk only?


 * Nope but it is possibly only Anglican, also celebrated by non-UK parts of the communion in Ireland, Canada, US, etc. PoisonedPigeon (talk) 11:04, 28 January 2011 (UTC)

Merge proposal

 * Against. Although these events occur on the same day, and may be related in the dim and distant past, they are now in effect, two separate entities. Laetare Sunday is principally an historic christian festival whereas Mothering Sunday has become a modern-day celebration. Arcturus 15:22, 7 May 2006 (UTC)


 * For. Mothering sunday is Laetare Sunday.  The modern-day celebration is Mother's Day which in the UK happens to be celebrated on the same day.  A merge with Laetare Sunday would be consistent with Mother's Day (disambiguation) which makes the distinction between the two festivals clear.  You would rarely find people referring to the secular celebration as Mothering Sunday, but more likely by the term Mother's Day.  PoisonedPigeon (talk) 10:03, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

A Day For Mother
Is a day for Mother regardless of what religion says

And every living thing has a Mother but is not neccesarily a member of a religious mutual consensus group.

In fact it was possibly the child of a Mother that thought all this up in the first place as well

Toverprins Zondag 14 Mei 2006

Date
According to the BBC website, Mothering Sunday in the UK is 26th March, not the 18th 194.176.105.40 15:45, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Oops. Wrong year. 194.176.105.40 15:47, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Mothering Sunday is NOT "Mother's Day"
I am unhappy about the way this article erroneously equates "Mothering Sunday" with "Mother's Day" (I know that lots of greeting cards make this error, but that does not make it right). Mother's Day takes place in May; "Mothering Sunday" is always the fourth Sunday in Lent. ACEOREVIVED (talk) 00:43, 22 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Mother's Day is celebrated on a large number of different dates around the world, by no means all of them in May. From a purely British perspective, I can't ever remember anyone celebrating such a thing in May in this country unless they had American family or something like that. "Mother's Day", at least for secular purposes in the UK, is precisely the same thing as "Mothering Sunday". Loganberry (Talk) 17:46, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, hurrah for Wikipedia - looking at the title of the article now, it is quite clear that these are different dates - so thank you there, Wikipedia! ACEOREVIVED (talk) 20:45, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

Carlin Sunday
Carlin Sunday is the sunday before Palm Sunday and has nothing to do with Mothering Sunday. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.143.32.39 (talk) 17:46, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

I think that that day is more commonly called "Passion Sunday". ACEOREVIVED (talk) 16:15, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

Claim of prehistoric origins
The revision of 19:18, 9 May 2009 by 78.143.201.216 "(removed suggestion that celebration of the mother goddess began in the year 250BC)" is when the concept of a prehistoric origin for the festival was introduced to this article. It has not been challenged till quite recently, and though it is unlikely that it will be possible to verify such a statement, the fact that it had previously been equated with the pre-Christian festival in honour of Cybele may be sufficient reason to think that its origins are prehistoric. Small effigies such as the Venus of Willendorf are generally considered to be of considerable antiquity, though whether it is stretching conjecture too far, to be claiming a Neolithic origin for a Spring festival devoted to the Mother, is presumably the point at issue. I would refer persons of an inquiring mind to the works of Monica Sjöö.

g88keeper (talk) 07:56, 19 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Well, I am challenging it, I have removed all the unsourced claims that Mothering Sunday is related to ancient goddess worship. The sources didn't claim any such thing. They say: Hilaria --> Laetere Sunday --> Mothering Sunday. There are a lot of legends and beautifications going around all these popular festivals, and we should avoid them. --Enric Naval (talk) 20:28, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

That's all good; thanks for going through and checking the sources, and doing something constructive about the "fluffy-bunnyisms" that creep into the strangest places! I am not so bold as you, but I agree, the claims made were tenuous.

g88keeper (talk) 01:25, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

External links modified
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