Mid-Lent Sunday (Mothering Sunday)

A carnival is held at Stavelot, Belgium, with a parade led by the "Black Mossis", draped completely in white cloth, with their distinctive masks and long red noses.

Carnival of the Chinels, Fosses-La-Ville, Belgium. Held on Laetere Sunday, Mid-Lent. Dressed in gorgeous satin costumes, the "Chinels" dance like living dolls.

Today is also known as Laetere Sunday

(Latin, rejoice). The fourth Sunday in Lent, so called from the first word of the Introit... It is also known as Mothering Sunday.

Mid-Lent Sunday

"The fourth Sunday in Lent. It is called dominica refectionis (Refreshment Sunday) because the first lesson is the banquet given by Joseph to his brethren, and the gospel of the day is the miraculous feeding of the five thousand. It is the day on which simnel cakes are eaten and it is also called Mothering Sunday."  (Brewer)

In olden days, boys went about into villages with a figure of death made of straw; the people drove them out or gave the boys money to get rid of them. It seems likely that it represented the death of Winter, and this ceremony was only part of a larger, older one, in which one figure represented Spring and one Winter. The former was called Sommer stout. The figures fought, with Spring the victor.

  Going a-Mothering comes from the Catholic tradition of visiting the mother church on Mid-Lent Sunday, to malke offerings at the high altar, and is the origin of today's Mothers' Day, a commercialised fiasco with shades of real meaning clinging on. 

  Today's rites are derived from the Hilaria, the Roman festival in honour of the Mother of the Gods on the ides of March (March 15). In the church, at first the offerings were voluntary but the priests introduced a system of paid dues called Easter Offerings.

  Another name is Rose Sunday because the Pope carries a golden rose in his hand on way to and from mass.

  Seville, Spain: Children in costume go into the street, beating drums and shaking rattles, crying "Saw down the old woman". At midnight they knock at every door, repeat the same cries, saw in two the figure of an old woman representing Lent.

   The boyes with ropes of straw doth frame an ugly monster here

   And call him death, whom from the town, with prowd and solemn chere,

   To hills and valleyes they convey, and villages thereby,

   From whence they stragling doe return, well beaten commonly.

   Thus children also beare with speares, their cracknells round about,

   And two they have whereof the one is called Sommer stout:

   Apparalde all in greene, and drest in youthful fine araye,

   The other Winter, clad in mosse with heare all hoare and graye.

   These two togither fight, of which the Palme doth Sommer get,

   From hence to meate they go, and all with wine their whistles wet.

  Barnaby Googe, The Popish Kingdome, or Reigne of Antichrist 1570

In Germany, Mid-Lent/Laetare/Fourth Sunday in Lent is known as Totensonntag ("Sunday  of the Dead"); on this day the practice of Todaustragen, ("the carrying out of the dead") is performed. (Tod=Death; austragen=to carry out). Also called Todaustreiben, "the driving out of Death".

  To the Czechs, it is nedele Laetare ("Laetare Sunday", as in English) and nedele smrtelná, smrt meaning "Death". The Serbo-Croatians call it both Laetare and Smjertnica. In some areas, Todaustragen is performed on Laetare, some on Sonntag Oculi, subsequent to Laetare, and on Sonntag Judica, the week before. Least frequently, Todaustreiben is performed on Palm Sunday.

 

"Generally a puppet, a figure of straw or wood, was carried about, thrown in water, a bog, or burnt; if the figure was female it was carried by a boy, if male it was carried by a girl. They quarreled about where it should be made and bound together,. Nobody would die during the coming year in the house in which it was made. Those who had thrown away the Death, quickly ran away out of fear that he should arise and pursue them. If they encountered cattle while returning home, they beat them with rods in te belief that they (the cattle) would thereby become fruitful." Grimm, Jacob, Deutsche Mythologie, Ferd. Dummlers Verlagsbuchhandlung Harwitz und Gossman, Berlin, 1875, Vol. 1, p 640. From (and presumably translated by) Flaherty, Robert Pearson, Todaustragen: The ritual expulsion of Death at Mid-Lent, Folklore, Vol 103:i, 1992, p 40.

 

  In some areas, Todaustragen is known as Winteraustragen (Winteraustreiben), for the straw figure represents Winter as well as Death. It is generally found to occur in conjunction with the practice of Sommereinholen/Sommereinbringen (the ushering in or bringing in of Summer). A figure dressed in ivy and greenery or a decorated tree representative of Summer is welcomed in, and Death/Winter expelled. Therefore Laetare is known as Sommertag in areas such as the Rheinland and Main.

Related customs

Italy, France and Spain: an old woman effigy is sawn in two.

  India:  7th day after full moon in March, an image of the goddess Kali as Durga is thrown into the Ganges. 

  Romania: the first 9-12 days of March called Zilele Babei, Days of the old Woman, during which time Winter might return with ferocity.  March 1 is called Baba Dokia, after an old woman, the personification of Winter, who lived in the mountains.

Simnel cakes

An old custom in Shropshire and Herefordshire, and especially at Shrewsbury, is to make 'simnel cakes' at Lent, Easter and Christmas. They are raised cakes, with a crust made of fine flour and water, coloured yellow with saffron, filled with the materials of a very rich plum-cake, with plenty of candied lemon peel, etc. 

  The name is found in old English and French, and in medieval Latin: simanellus or siminellus. In early times they were marked with an image of Christ or Mary.