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Mothering Sunday


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Mothering Sunday is a particularly British celebration, written in the church calendar.  Mothers Day in France (Fete des Meres) normally is the last Sunday in May unless Pentecote falls that day in which case it is carried forward to the first Sunday of June which is the case this year so French Mothers Day is the 7th June.  I have a daughter in the UK and another in France so I get to celebrate it twice!

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Mothering Sunday was a day celebrated in the 16th and 17th centuries when people specifically visited the "mother church" of their area. Later it also became the day when apprentices and girls in domestic service were permitted a visit home to see their mothers and families.

Mother's Day is a 20th century American commercial invention designed to inflate the profitability of florist businesses and greeting card printers.

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[quote user="Clarkkent"]

 

Mother's Day is a 20th century American commercial invention designed to inflate the profitability of florist businesses and greeting card printers.

[/quote]

A bit different for France though..

I don't like the idea of the " regime de Vichy" to have anything to do with it...

L'origine de la fête des mères en France : un demi siècle de mise au pointT

rès vite les français prennent modèle sur les américains et en 1920, le ministre de l'Intérieur proclame une journée pour fêter les« Mères de familles nombreuses ». La première guerre a fait des ravages parmi la population masculine et la fête des mères est l'occasion de récompenser la fécondité qui devient une vertu civique.
C'est le régime de Vichy qui institue la journée de la mère, sans aucune distinction par rapport au nombre d'enfants. La fête des mères s'adresse alors à toutes les mamans. .
Cette fête laïque, très populaire en France, a été instaurée officiellement en 1950 par Vincent Auriol et fixée au quatrième dimanche de mai

The origin of Mother's Day in France

 

 The French are modeled on the U.S. and in 1920, the interior minister declared a day to celebrate "Mothers of large families." The first war has wreaked havoc among the male population and the Mother's Day is an opportunity to reward the fertility becomes a civic virtue.
This is the Vichy regime that establishes the day of the mother, without any distinction between the number of children. Mother's Day turned to all mothers. .
This festival secular popular in France, was officially established in 1950 by Vincent Auriol and secured the fourth Sunday in May

 



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[quote user="Frenchie"][quote user="Clarkkent"]

 

Mother's Day is a 20th century American commercial invention designed to inflate the profitability of florist businesses and greeting card printers.

[/quote]

A bit different for France though..

The origin of Mother's Day in France

 

...

 

 The French are modeled on the U.S. and in 1920, the interior minister declared a day to celebrate "Mothers of large families." The first war has wreaked havoc among the male population and the Mother's Day is an opportunity to reward the fertility becomes a civic virtue.
This is the Vichy regime that establishes the day of the mother, without any distinction between the number of children. Mother's Day turned to all mothers. .
This festival secular popular in France, was officially established in 1950 by Vincent Auriol and secured the fourth Sunday in May

[/quote]

How interesting.

So Mothers Day in France has nothing to do with children's gratitude but celebrates the consequences of sexual intercourse.

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My children complain that it is increasingly difficult to get cards which actually say 'Mothering Sunday" on them. They say that all the ones that do are much too flowery and sentimental for an old bat like me !

Hoddy
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[quote user="Renaud"]Clarkkent Most mothering results from "the consequences of sexual intercourse".[/quote]

Of course it does.

But:

1   "Mothering" as in Sunday referred to the "Mother church", and

2   French Mothers Day (as quoted by Frenchie) is concerned with fecundity, fruitfulness, with the use of the uterus to produce children. The American festival encourages children to thank their mothers for raising them. I think that these are qualitatively different things.

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When I was seconded to Liverpool on Mothers day a few years back, I had terrible trouble getting a taxi from the station.

I asked the local taxi why it was so hard to get a taxi on Mothers day and he replied.......

"Very important day Mothersday in Liverpool.........

.........Because know one knows who the father was.. [:-))]

[:D]

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