Show mothers day observed by all nations the observation of mothers day as B national hesthal Is significant that a day eo rich in sentiment so tender in its meaning should be officially adopted in a country which scoffs at and prides itself on its veneer of practicality Is a hopeful like the divining rod of old us age it reveals underneath the crust of commercialism a perennial spring of idealism although the formal designation of a specific day as mother s day was f but recently made in this country we find in turning the pages of history that the idea rests like so many of E our customs upon an ancient foundation it strikes deep roots into i truth and emotion mother i love antedates the christian religion mother worship with its own rites and ceremonies reaches back into pa gan times mother of the coda fc our earliest record of formal aoth er worship Is in the stories of the ceremonies by which cybelle or rhea t the great mother of gods was wor I 1 ringed in asia minor in her worship s it vi as the power and majesty of mothr ergood rather than its tender maternal that the wild dances and wilder celebrated cybelle was depre tented as traversing the mountains in a chariot drawn by lions the lion the oak and the pine were sacred to I her the worship of this superlative t mother of gods was introduced through greece into isome about years before christ there it was f known as the festival of and wag held on the ides of march when the people made offerings in the tern ale these were of course confiscate td by the priests but they served their purpose of elevating motherhood into something of its rightful dignity with the advent of christianity the t festival etall keeping some of its old forms was informed with a new spirit and transfigured trans figured the old celebia alon with pagan rites in honor of the mother of the gods on the ides of march grew into a celebration in honor of the mother church it became the custom on mid lent sunday the fourth sunday in lent for the faithful to visit the church in which they baptized and brought up bearing gifts for the altar mothering sunday old just when and how this festival of worship tor the mother church give I 1 rise to the observance of mothering sunday Is uncertain it Is sure how fever that a long tame ago when young men and maidens were bound out as and servants mid lent sunday was set apart for them to als gt their parents v the following quaint account of this festival is talen from chambers book of days the harshness and general pain jj ulness of life in old times must have pen much relieved by certain simple and affectionate customs which rood farn people have learned to dispense with amongst these was a practice of going to ece parents and epe dally the female one on the mid sunday of I 1 ent taking for them some little present such as a balc calc or a trinket A youth engaged in this ami able act of duty was said to go a mothering and thence the dav it self came to be called mothering sunday one can readily imagine how after a stripling or maiden had gone to service or launched in independent housekeeping the old bonds of filial oe would be brightened by this pleasant annual visit signalizes signalized ns custom demanded it should be by the excitement attending some and perhaps surprising gift there was also a cheering and peculiar festivity appropriate to the day the prominent dish being which we have to interpret as wheat grains boiled in street milk sugared and spiced in the northern part of I 1 angland and in scotland there seems to have been a licater leaning to steeped feie fried in butter with pepper and salt pancakes so composed passed by the name of Car tings and so am was this article that from it car ling sunday became a local name tor the day ald mid and algera carling Carll ng palm pase ess day remains in the north of england as an enumeration of the sundays of lent the first three beims probably taken from words in obsolete ices for the respective days and the fourth being the name of mid lent sunday from the cakes by which it as distinguished cake confes in another delicacy much esteemed on mothering sunday was a cake walsh in curiosities of lar customs says of this dainty in yorkshire and here ford shire it has long been the custom to make during lent a cake called n which Is deemed especially appropriate as a mothering present As far back as we find TO A in glocester ill to the a bring thou go at a so that when sh blessett tb thee kidir that blessing bles eing thou it give me the inside of a cake was like a rich fruitcake but it had an outer crust made of flour and water boiled first in water it was subsequently aked the crust Is colored yellow with saffron and ornamented with more or less art professional etymologists refer the word to the latin slilla meaning the fin est sort of flour but the folk etymologist mo logist declares that the baker fa ther of lambert pretender to the throne in the reign of henry VII was the first to make these cakes thence called after hla name |