Mothers Day, The Register, 7 May 1915

Mothers Day, The Register, 7 May 1915

Adelaide, celebration, Church services, custom, duty, gifts, gratitude, family, festival, homage, Lent, May, medieval custom, mother, mothering, mother’s day, observance, tradition, SA, South Australia, Sunday, white flowers, Young Women’s Christian Association.

This article from The Register in 1915 traces the origins of Mothers’ Day celebrations to the medieval period, when adolescent children would be afforded a holiday from work on the fourth Sunday in Lent to ‘go a-mothering’. On such occasions, the article explains, family members would assemble and pay homage to mothers by presenting gifts, and a general air of festivity ensued with special Church services and prayers containing more than usual reference to family life. While some elements of the festivities were not adopted in Australia, the article continues, the observance of mothers day is regularly marked by the wearing of white flowers, and by annual festivals such as the one conducted at the Young Women’s Christian Association headquarters in Adelaide.

Anon

TROVE: National Library of Australia, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59602764

7 May 1915, p.6

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