Mothering Sunday.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1046, 18 March 1892, Page 4

Mothering Sunday.

There are many quaint old observances religiously kept in England, which are scarcely known to the younger generation of colonials. One of these observances takes place on Sunday week. That day is known to churchmen as ‘ Midlent Sunday,’ but to hundreds of thousands of people in the rural and manufacturing districts in England it has a wider significance as ‘ Mothering Sunday.’ The origin of the term ‘ Mothering Sunday ’ dates back many centuries. It has for ages been a great holiday in Italy, more especially in the Holy City of Rome, for on that day the Pope blesses the ‘ golden rose,’ —a cluster of roses and rosebuds growing on one thorny stem, all of the purest gold. In its cup among its petals, the Pope, at every benediction he pronounces upon it, inserts a few particles of amber and musk. This rose is presented during the ecclesiastical year to the royal lady whose zeal for the church has most shown itself by pious deeds or intentions. The ex-empress Eugenie of France, was some years ago the recipient. Midlent Sunday is not celebrated as a religious festival as a rule among English speaking people. There are many thousands who keep up the customs of Mothering Sunday, who have not the faintest idea of its connection with Lent or indeed that Lent exists at all.

I well remember how this rural holidayused to be kept in a large manufacturing district in the Midlands of England. There was always a special dinner provided, and new frocks for the girls, for on this one day of the year it was the custom, if one of the daughters had an embryo sweetheart he was first introduced to the family. The daughter, just before dinner was ready, went out for a short walk, clad in all the feminine finery of a new print dress, a straw hat gay with colour, and for the first time in the spring, sported her parasol. The intended ‘ young man ’ was not far away. The girl knew where to meet him. He, rather bashful, yet very willing, was brought rather sheepishly to the parent’s home, and in the front parlour, with its red ‘ quarry ’ floor plentifully bestrewn with clean red sand for the occasion, the formal introduction took place. The young man was cordially invited to ‘ sit down and tak a bit wi’ us,’ an invitation to which he was nothing loth. In the afternoon, while the good man of the house slept his forty winks, and the good woman ‘ cleaned up ’ in the kitchen, the young lovers went for a walk to compare notes about the formal entry into the family. Mothering Sunday was also a great gathering day for the married sons and daughters of the family. The young fry of the home had left the parental nest, and had gone out into the world to struggle with its. joys and sorrows. In due time they married and bad olive branches of their own. Once a year they were all bounl to meet once more in the old home. It was often too cold at Christmas, they were too busy in other directions at Easter, so Mothering Sunday was the chosen day of meeting, probably unconsciously from the ancient custom when people used to visit their ‘ mother church ’ on that day, and preseut special offerings on the altar for special mercies during the past year. There was always special feasting on Mothering Sunday. The dinner was taken early in the day, say about twelve o’clock, so that a long afternoon could be enjoyed in quiet talk. Mary wanted to tell her mother all about the dreadful attack of measles the poor baby had, and John had much to say on his worldly prospects., The tea was a great meal that day. A few intimate neighbours dropped in to see the sons and daughters from a distance. The rule was that each son and daughter should bring a gift of some kind for their parents.

‘ On Mothering Sunday, above all other. Every child should dine with its mother.* The ‘ Simnel Cake ’ was produced on that one. day of the year. A cake rich in sugar, butter, fruit and spices, a cake that carried certain indigestion for a month aherwards, but always religiously eaten because it was never seen nor tasted but on Mothering Sunday. There is a very old legend connected with Simnel Cake. It was made and eaten in commemoration of the banquet given by Joseph to his brethren. This story happens to be in the morning lessons for the day in the church service, and the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand people forms the gospel of the day. Thus ancient history becomes blended with the mundane affairs of the present time. As perhaps some one may be anxious to know the constituents of an old time Simnel Cake, I here give a recipe which Was used in my family for several generations back, SiMijEL Cake. Take three eggs, and beat them up; dissolve a piece of ammonia of the size of a bean in hot. water. Mi? these with. a quarter of a pint of milk. Then mix together 2111) of flour, 111) of butter, 2111) of currants, lib of raisins, lib of %ugar, Jib of sweet almonds, the rind of one lemon grated, joz of cinnamon, and a little nutmeg and ground mace. With these, lib of fresh brewers yeast must be put into sponge, hut at first only half the quantity of the fruit.' It is best to set it so, at, for instance, ten o’clock in the morning, and then knead it at noon, and make up into cake at three o’clock, when the rest of the fruit may be scattered in, The shape of

the cake for baking should be a flat round, about two inches thick. Before and after baking the Simnel must be brushed over with treacle and water mixed. When done, a layer of very small comfit sweets should be put on the top. As to the origin of the word ‘ Simnel ’ there is much dispute, but I am inclined to think that it arose from the Latin word simila, which signifies fine white flour. We must remember that the custom of having this particular kind of cake at this season of the year has existed in England for many centuries past, and in those bygone times, bread was made of rye flour, which gave it a dark appearance. It was only ‘ the quality,’ that is the rich people, who used white or wheaten flour in those days, and as far back as the fourteenth century the recipes for this cake always laid great stress upon using ‘ white flour,’ a dainty food in those days, for a special cake was a luxury compared to the dark rye bread. The young people often made these cakes as a present for their parents, hence it was a great treat for the old people once a year to taste ‘ fine white flour,’ even in the form of Simnel Cake. To the younger generation of Colonials, the term of Mothering Sunday conveys no special interest but I believe that those of my many readers who are ‘ old country folk,’ will on reading this have their minds carried back to many happy Mothering Sundays passed, in the old land far away. Dora.