Mother’s Day

With less than two weeks to go to the annual Mother’s Day celebrations, let’s take a look back at the origins of this festival, and provide any gift-less sons and daughters with a gentle nudge in the direction of celebrating your Mum on the 31st!

Where did Mother’s Day Come From?

The concept of Mothering Sunday actually has its roots in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. The Ancient Greeks dedicated an annual spring festival to the wife of Cronus (the leader and youngest of the first generation of Titans), and mother of many deities of Greek mythology, Rhea. And the Ancient Romans celebrated an annual spring festival too, to honour Cybele, the ancient Phrygian Mother of the Gods, which they named Hilaria. Celebrated on the March equinox, the name of this Roman festival translates in Latin to ‘the cheerful ones’, and in Ancient Greek ‘cheerful, merry’.

Many centuries later, in the 1600s, the Christian community of England began to celebrate Mothering Sunday on the fourth Sunday of Lent, exactly three weeks before Easter Sunday. But instead of dedicating this day to mother figures, this was a day in which people would visit the church in which they were baptised – their ‘mother church’. Observed by both Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, the day of recognition in that era was very much a religious ceremony, not the familial affair that it has become today.

Modern Mother’s Day

The Mother’s Day that we are accustomed to today in the UK, which is too celebrated on the fourth

Sunday of Lent, surrounds the recognition and appreciation of the mother of the family, grandmothers, step mothers, and any other maternal figures we have in our lives, whether here or passed, and of the notion of motherhood itself. Pregnant women are often treated by their partners in honour of their unborn child, in gratitude for the work they are already doing as a mother, and the joy they will provide to the world once the baby is born.

This celebration of our motherly figures has been borrowed from the occasion in the US, which was founded by Ann Reeves Jarvis in the early twentieth century. Though not directly related to the goddess-adoring festivals of Ancient Greece and Rome, or the religious festivities from the seventeenth century, many people can see similarities between the rituals, which all surround compassion, appreciation and love.

Mother’s Day Celebrated Both In The Uk And USA

Nowadays the event in the UK, the US and beyond has become increasingly commercialised, with many shops and businesses offering Mother’s Day gifts from the sublime to the ridiculous. Common presents from children to their mums include breakfast in bed, a home-cooked Sunday roast, a vibrant spring bouquet, an indulgent box of chocolates or a cheeky bottle of vino.

Mother’s Day At The Millstone Hare

However, if you’ve forgotten to go to the shops, and can’t cook a roast chicken no matter how good the recipe, why not take you mum out for a lovely Sunday Lunch, and treat her to a fabulous glass of fizz?! The Millstone Hare, set in the beautiful grounds of Dallas Burston Polo Club, have a wonderful Sunday Lunch menu to get mouth’s watering and eyes swelling, with a free glass of prosecco for all mum’s on Sunday 31st March. And do you know the best part? There’s absolutely no washing up involved!

To book your table call 01926 830255 or email