Mothers Day / La Fete de la Mere.

La Fête des Mères.

Enshrined in a law passed in 1950, the last Sunday in May is Mother’s Day in France.

‘The French Republic officially pays tribute each year to French mothers during a day devoted to the celebration of Mother's Day’.

In the UK, it’s often known as Mothering Sunday. Originally, the mother was your Mother Church. You were expected to return to your ‘mother church’, the parish church where you were baptised, on the fourth Sunday in Lent to attend a Service celebrating families, the only time whole families could gather together.

Employers gave employees a day off to ‘go a-mothering’

The day entailed a long journey for many. Boys as young as seven, sent away to serve long apprenticeships saw their mothers only once a year as did young girls, sent away as domestic servants. Those working in the fields on farms and estates were also given the day off.

It became the tradition for children to take bunches of wild flowers to place in the church.

The religious tradition eventually evolved into Mothering Sunday.

Post by Pamela, photography by Mark.