The Fourth Sunday of Lent
Mothering Sunday
Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Lencten which means Springtime. Sunday is the day on which Jesus rose from the dead and the day for weekly communal Christian worship. During Lent, the period of repentance and self sacrifice in preparation for Easter, a Sunday is not a fasting day. Lent lasts for forty days with the omission of the six Sundays. It begins on Ash Wednesday (forty-six days before Easter) and ends on Good Friday.
The season of Lent commemorates Jesus’s journey into the Wilderness where he was tempted but rejected earthly pleasures (Matt 4:1-11, Mark 1:9-15 & Luke 4:1-13). For the Christian it becomes a time for reflection. The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is an opportunity for personal sacrifice, ‘foregoing’ or fasting, a dedication of time or money.
Dust and Ashes are closely associated with mortality, the transient nature of human life (Exodus 3:19). The use of Ashes on Ash Wednesday has roots in the Old Testament where it symbolises mourning and death, Human finality, but also the everlasting love of God. Job in Job (Job 2:8) ‘And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes’. So Job, sitting in ashes, was a sign of repentance, turning away from sin towards God. In this vein the Anglo-Saxon monk, Abbott Aelfric of Eynsham (955-1020), writes of Ash Wednesday in his Lives of the Saints: “We read in the books both in the Old Law and in the New, that the men who repented of their sins bestrewed themselves with ashes and clothed their bodies with sackcloth. Now let us do this little at the beginning of our Lent that we strew ashes upon our heads to signify that we ought to repent of our sins during the Lenten fast.”
‘Ember’ Days hark back to the earliest days of the church and are marked by abstinence and fasting. Ash Wednesday is an Ember Day. Ember days have connections with God the creator, the seasons, the annual crops and the basic elements. In Medieval times the defined elements were: Air, Earth, Fire and Water; the aim was to keep these elements in balance with the four humours: blood, phlegm with yellow and black bile. This was first described in a (Greek) fifth century BC Hippocatic treatise called The Nature of Man. The four humours correspond with the season: blood hot and wet - spring, yellow bile - hot and dry in summer, black bile - cold and dry in autumn, and phlegm, cold and wet in winter. Good health is the balance and mixture of the humours while their in balance is the source of dis-ease.
The Reformation heralded an increasing Protestant suspicion of the traditions of Lent. Luther condemned the Catholic rules on the different foods that could be eaten during a fast and indeed the ‘worthiness’ of fasting itself, but he did not condemn it completely. Luther left fasting to Christian liberty, ‘the discretion of the individual’. However Calvin, another staunch Protestant, upheld fasting as a worthy activity but with a level-headed request to eat for need not pleasure, without specific rules. “Fasting per se is not important unless it is directed towards something of purpose. Outward fasting is of no benefit without inward humility.”
Fasting in Lent evolved contrasting Lentern Sundays. Brockett’s Glossary of North Country Words (Newcastle upon Tyne 1829) gives popular names for Sundays in Lent: Tid, Mid, Miseray, Carling, Palm, Pasce-Egg Day. Three of these Sundays can be noted by association with the Old Latin service: Te Deum, Mi Deus and Misere mei. Carling Sunday has its roots in grey peas steeped overnight in water and then fried in butter the following day. Carling peas are served on the second Sunday before Easter thereby known as Carling Sunday. Some regions of Scotland celebrate Care Sunday which also has its origin in food, a small cake. There are regional variations. In Southern Scotland, the carcake or kercaik is made from blood and oatmeal and cooked in a frying pan. It is known as Blude Kercake. In Angus and the Mearns a Skair-scon, a thin batter cake (pancake) is eaten on Fasten’s e’en .
A Northumberland couplet names each Lenten Sunday except the first,
Tid, and Mid, and Misera,
Carling, Palm and Good pas Day
Sundays are considered mini festivals, and the fourth Lenten Sunday is known as Mothering, Simnel, Refreshment, Laetare (Rejoicing) or Rose Sunday. Mothering Sunday was an ancient holiday when absent children visited parents and their Mother Church. Refreshment Sunday (the Sunday of the five loaves) is associated with the miracle of the boy with loaves and fishes. This Sunday saw servants return to their Mother Church (the church of their baptism) to gift their own mothers a bunch of violets or primroses and cake. Today it’s difficult to find a card that celebrates Mothering Sunday (rather than Mother’s Day), but if you seek you will find. I associate anemones with spring and love their vibrant colours. Anemones make a wonderful Mothering Sunday gift. It was the custom to take home Simnel cake adorned with crystalised wildflowers (violets and primroses). The 17th century poet Robert Herrick alludes to many customs of his day in his poetry – here he writes of Simnel Cake.
“I’ll go to thee a Simnel bring, ‘Gainst thou’ go’st a Mothering, So that when she blesseth thee, Half that blessing thou’lt give to me.” ~ Robert Herrick, 164
8
Simnel Cake is an enriched fruit cake made using the finest white flour (from the Latin simila). In earlier times it was encased in a crust and flavoured with saffron. The yellow colouring from the saffron may have played a part in the use of marzipan (yellow) by contemporary cooks. A Simnel cake has a marzipan layer in the centre of the cake and a marzipan layer in place of icing. There are eleven marzipan balls representing the apostles and some add an extra one in the centre to symbolise Jesus. Judas (the twelfth apostle) doesn’t merit a decorative ball due to his betrayal of Jesus. I think that the balls could be moulded into a Bishop’s Mitre. This is attractive and uses less marzipan.
The story of the Star shaped Devizes (Wiltshire) Simnel is described in a poem in the Wiltshire Independent (March 8th, 1838)
THE SIM-NELL or The WILTSHIRE CAKE. (This is a tradition I like to observe myself)
To a mind ill-disposed to believe every story
That is told us each day Tom Stiles and Jack Nory,
The following relation will scarce be believed.
Though here tis as true as the Gospel received.
Man, aces ago, when the season Lent
Was, by Christians, devoted to fast and repent.
When the proud mitred Prelate, and laity sinner.
Cleansed their conscience from sin by forsaking a dinner
At least that foul part which consisted meat,
While fish, pudding, and cake, they might heartily eat
Nor did any recoil the humble repast,
Concluding that forty days only t'would last,
And that sins of all kinds were discharged by the fast
Then he was most lov'd who produced the best take,
Of which they might all, without sinning, partake.
And, tho' numerous the claimants, as I have heard tell,
There were none who were equal to Simon and Nell.
At this season was that the parties recited,
Who soil bonds wedlock had long been united,
Determined a cake of such taste to provide. #
That should be the town and the country the pride.
But they could not agree on the best way to make it,—
It was Simon's opinion to mould it and bake it;
While Nell, a true woman, protested t'would spoil it.
And resolved to put on the pot and boil it-
What then could poor Simon, whose love to his wife
Made him loth to engage in simple a strife.
Yet could not consent to have the cake spoiled,
And knew it must surely be so if twas boiled;—
Call'd Nell to a parley, and then in a trice,
To prevent future broils subject so nice,
Agreed to please both sides, —that first in the pot
The cake should be boiled, till soaked and hot;
Then Simon should afterwards from the pot take it,
And place it within a hot oven and bake it.
Thus ended the strife; and our grandfathers tell,
That the cake from that instant was called SIM-NELL
Devizes, 1810
A tradition associated with the the fourth Lenten Sunday is Clipping or Clypping (maning to embrace) the Church. This involved the congregation greeting and embracing each other. In some churches this takes the form of a congregational dance. This is an ancient ceremony with regional and indeed liturgical calendar variation. The Game of Thread the Needle seems to be embroiled with the custom of Church Clipping. Thread the Needle involves two players holding hands to form an arch and the other players line up to creep through the arch (a bit like ‘Oranges and Lemons’). Church Clipping often followed the Thread the Needle. Church clipping involved a ring of children (young people) joining hands to form a large circle. Both customs were spring ceremonies.
Mothering Sunday is day for embracing our love of each other be it of our immediate family or within the local church and community. Sharing a delicious piece of simnel cake adorned with crystallised spring flowers on Mothering Sunday celebrates breath spring. A ray of saffron or marzipan colour during the austere days of Lent in the Christian countdown to Easter.
