Mother's day celebration in Ireland

The practice of mother's day in Ireland commonly observed on the auspicious day of mothering Sunday is similar to the UK celebration date but technically different from USA celebration date. Originally in accordance with the mother's day celebrations in UK it falls on the 4 th Sunday in the month of Lent presently termed as the months of March or April.

This celebration is believed to have originated since the 16 th century Christian observation of the followers visiting their mother church and this also rendered the scope for most mothers to unite with their siblings annually on this occasion. According to most the young apprentices and kids from poor families went to the urban countryside to work for the rich families and this also included the young women serving the rich were allowed to visit their families and mothers as well. Henceforth this occasion came to be observed as mother's day. This day is now universally celebrated as mother's day though Ireland and UK celebrate it on different days as compared to USA. For many people mother's day is a means for corporate associations to commercial promotion as on this day the cards and gift shops and florist shops do a roaring business and the day is hyped like anything while the history actually reveals an inspiring and tragic story about a mother and daughter. This celebration is also known to trace its roots from women's social activism in North America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The other stories associated with mother's day history is that of Anne Marie Reeves Jarvis, who was a housewife in Virginia and she led Mothers' Work Day Clubs, and brought women together on one platform to improvise on the sanitation conditions and to cut down on the region's high mortality rate and gradually during the American civil war their club helped nursing the injured soldiers. Presently Anna Jarvis in tribute to her mother, Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis laid a memorial. On this auspicious day of the fourth Sunday kids who were released by their masters to visit their mothers used to frequently gift a mothering cake to their loving mothers. This was a kind of a fruit cake filled with pastry better known as simnels. During the dinner sessions of the mothering Sundays a sweetened and boiled cereal dish was most often served during 19 th century celebrations. Though this celebration on mothering Sunday has died out in Britain but Ireland is known to have retained this tradition. On this special day girls bake special Mothering Cakes for their mothers to shower their affection on this special day of Mothering Sunday. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution the celebration of this Mothering Sunday almost ceased to exist.