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Mothering Sunday
by loiswakeman @ 03/03/2008 - 22:46:31

In Uplyme, it's long been a tradition for a group of Church ladies to pick and bunch primroses in the week before Mothering Sunday and send them to a church in Bermondsey (south east London).

mothering sunday flowers

This year, the flowers were out early, fortunate since Mothering Sunday was so early too (the fourth Sunday in Lent). This has nothing to do with Mother's Day - probably an invention of the greetings card industry - but the day when people used to journey to their "Mother Church" in the 16th Century, and often the only day when hard-working poor families got to spend any time together. Later on, it was traditional to give domestic servants this day off to visit their families.

I show some primroses in the hedgerow, and also a wild violet, another traditional posy for Mum. With love for my own Mum!

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thehomelyyearthehomelyyear pro
03/03/08 @ 23:07

Lovely photo...we used to pay sixpence so that we could collect a bunch of Devon violets from church to give to my mum on Mothering Sunday.

tylluanpenrytylluanpenry pro
04/03/08 @ 17:15

How beautiful! I love primroses and have them growing in my garden. Like most yellow flowers, primroses are closely associated with poultry (perhaps because they resemble the yolks) and if you picked only one or two and brought them indoors it was said to stop your hens from laying. If you brought a big bunch into the house however, it was said to be very lucky and foretell a plentiful supply of eggs.

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loiswakemanloiswakeman [Member]
http://lois.co.uk
04/03/08 @ 17:58

I didn't know that. So many country beliefs to discover!

Will hens eat primroses? Some of the garden birds certainly enjoy scoffing them.

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tylluanpenrytylluanpenry pro
04/03/08 @ 20:05

I honestly don't know whether they eat them or not. But other yellow flowers, such as cowslips are also associated with poultry and eggs.

Sometimes Primroses were also used for divination - made into balls called 'Tisty Tosties'. Children threw them to each other while asking questions (e.g. when shall I marry? This year, next year, sometime, never) and when the ball was dropped the answer given at the time was supposed to be the 'true' one.

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LissaTLissaT pro
04/03/08 @ 21:38

The custom of the primrose ball is described in 'Larkrise'; I wonder whether it still carries on.

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LissaTLissaT pro
04/03/08 @ 17:15

Round here the church ladies make up lots of little posies (usually miniature daffodils plus whichever of late snowdrops, early primroses, early grape hyacinths etc are in flower and some greenery) and take them to church in a big basket: the children/young people then distribute them among the ladies present including those who picked them in the first place.

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loiswakemanloiswakeman [Member]
http://lois.co.uk
04/03/08 @ 17:57

Fascinating how each parish has its own customs, isn't it?

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poetryman69 [Visitor]
http://olympics.poetryman6969.com/
06/03/08 @ 14:14

Lovely photos

george [Visitor]

07/05/08 @ 21:54

Well Mothering Sunday is also a day dedicated to mothers and Mother's day is not an invention of greeting card industry, there are actually strong women that fought for this day. Mother's day is an opportunity to remember the world what love and compassion means through the power of women. This is the true meaning of this day.

[Edited to remove plug for commercial web site. Danutza Andrei, you should be ashamed of yourself. And I hope your Mother is too.]

The blog owner changed this comment on 08/05/08 09:08

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