Mothering Sunday Activities

Make them breakfast in bed

Making breakfast for your mum is a great way to show them how much you care about them.

You could go extra fancy and make some pancakes, or go for some classic cereal, toast, fruit or pastries, whatever they like!

If you need a little extra help making the food or carrying the tray, make sure to ask an older sibling or adult to help.

Make them a card

A card made just by you is sure to make your loved one smile this Mother's Day!

There's lot's of different ways you can get creative with your design.

From using recyclable materials around the house to make flowers or hearts, to using old photos or real pressed flowers.

You could even write a special poem inside to make them!

Bake something together

A gift you can eat, yes please!

Baking is lots of fun to do together, and what's even better is you get something tasty at the end! (They might even let you lick the spoon)

Make sure you get some help from an adult if you're using any sharp knives or hot ovens though.

Make a photo collage

It's always nice to look back at fun memories together, and one way you could do that is to make a photo collage, or scrapbook.

You might need a bit of extra help with this one, but you can make a photo collage by printing off some of your favourite pictures with your loved ones, and sticking them on some colourful paper or in a little book.

Add some descriptions of what happened in the photos, or get creative and stick leaves, flowers or glitter on it and colour it in to make it extra jazzy!

You can even leave some room for more fun memories in the future!

Watch a movie together

After a busy day it's great to kick back, relax and watch a movie together.

You could go on a trip to the cinema, or even make a cosy movie fort at home (mmm homemade popcorn yummy!)

Grab some blankets and their favourite movie, cuddle up together and enjoy!

Spend time together

Have a special tea or lunch together.  You can have a special menu or just have a posh afternoon tea, with perhaps some wine, {alcoholic or non-alcoholic].

 

Do you know the origins of Mother’s day and how its celebrated around the world?

Mothering Sunday is a day honouring mother churches, the church where one is baptised and becomes "a child of the church", celebrated since the Middle Ages in the United Kingdom, Ireland and some Commonwealth countries on the fourth Sunday in Lent. On Mothering Sunday, Christians have historically visited their mother church—the church in which they received the sacrament of baptism.

During the Middle Ages, the custom developed of allowing people who had moved away from where they grew up to come back to visit their home or 'mother' churches, and their mothers, on the fourth Sunday of the Christian festival of Lent.

At the time, it wasn't uncommon for children to leave home to work when they were as young as 10 years old, so this was an opportunity for families to meet up again.

This became Mothering Sunday in Britain. As the dates of Lent vary each year, so does the date of Mothering Sunday.

Although it's often called Mother's Day in the UK, it has no connection with the American Mother's Day.  In the US, Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May each year.

The idea started in America when a woman called Anna Jarvis held a small memorial service for her own mother on 12 May 1907. Soon after, most places in America were observing the day and in 1914, the US president made it a national holiday, celebrated on the second Sunday of May. 

However, by 1920 Anna became angry at how companies were using the holiday as a way to make money off people by buying gifts, and even campaigned against the government to remove it from the calendar all together.

Mother's Day is at different times of the year and based on different seasons across the world.

In Ethiopia mothers are celebrated during Antrosht - a three-day festival held at the end of the rainy season in early autumn.  As the weather clears, family members come together and have a large meal of vegetables, cheese and meat, and celebrate by singing and dancing together.

In Japan, Mother's Day was originally celebrated on 6 March - as this was the birthday of Empress Kōjun - however, in 1949 it was changed to the second Sunday in May. For many mothers around this time, the day was a way to help comfort mothers who had lost their sons from fighting in World War II and traditionally, carnation flowers were given as gifts.

In Mexico, Día de Las Madres is celebrated on 10 May, and is a big deal! People take their mothers out for a meal at restaurants, and mariachi bands will sing songs to them like "Las Mananitas.

The food item traditionally associated with Mothering Sunday is Simnel cake - a type of fruit cake with two layers of almond paste (one on the top and one in the middle).

These days, Simnel cakes are more associated with Easter.

Many churches hold Mothering Sunday services and flowers are given out to children to give to their mums.