Mother’s Day is celebrated across the world, in more than 50 countries, though not all countriescelebrate it on the same day. Countries that celebrate Mother’s Day on the second Sunday of Mayinclude Australia, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Switzerland, Turkey and Belgium. In Mexico and manyparts of Latin America, Mother’s Day is celebrated on May 10th of each year. In Thailand, it iscelebrated on August 12th, the birthday of the current Queen. Arguably, the tradition of a day to celebrate mothers can be traced back to the times of the ancientGreeks, who held festivities to honour Rhea, the mother of the gods. Early Christians celebrated thefourth Sunday of Lent as a Mother’s festival to honour Mary, the mother of Christ. In the UK, thetradition of Mother’s Day is now very similar to its American counterpart, but its origins aredifferent, as the day commemorates returning to your mother church on the fourth Sunday in Lent.The English colonists who settled in America discontinued the tradition of Mothering Sunday, aspresumably, it would have been a bit of a trip to return to their mother church for the day. Mother’s Day traditions It was customary for people in Britain to cook their mothers a simnel cake – a type of light fruitcake with two layers of marzipan – on Mothering Sunday because it falls in the middle of Lent andso represents a relaxation of the fasting rules. For this reason, the day was also traditionally calledRefreshment Sunday. Simnel cakes, which are also associated with Easter, traditionally feature 11 balls of marzipan icing representing 11 of the 12 disciples (Judas is usually left out, except inextraordinarily forgiving Christian households). Today, gifts of flowers or chocolates are moreusual. …
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