At Trinity Church, baskets of flowers had been prepared before the service. The younger members of the church helped make up small posies which were later given to mothers and carers during the service. Revd John Anderson blessed the flowers and we sang Tell Out, My Soul, a hymn based on the Magnificat of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
He remarked that his daughters have told him he is turning into a grumpy old man, though that does have its advantages. It means he can grumble not about the appreciation of Mothers but about the commercialisation of Mother’s Day.
Historically, Mothering Sunday had a different emphasis. In earlier centuries it was about returning to your “Mother Church” — the church where you had been baptised, or the main church in the area. Over time the day gradually evolved into a celebration of mothers themselves, and today it is often referred to simply as Mother’s Day, though many churches still keep the older traditions alongside the modern custom of giving flowers and cards and taking Mother out.
In the United States the celebration takes place on a different date. American Mother’s Day is held in May and was promoted in the early twentieth century by Anna Jarvis as a day to honour mothers. It became an official US holiday in 1914. Jarvis later complained that the day had become far too commercialised, something she had never intended.