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Lent finale revives an old tradition
By JEAN JOHNSON BROOKSVILLE -- Probably for the first time in its long history, St. John's Episcopal Church will celebrate on Sunday an old English Lenten church tradition -- Mothering Sunday. The event is held the fourth Sunday of Lent and is so named because it is a day that worshipers historically visited their mother church or the church of their baptism. In effect, baptism is a person's birth into the church. The custom in England was for indentured servants and others who lived away from home to return, usually laden with offerings. Children would offer their mother bouquets of violets or other wild flowers gathered in the hedgerows as they walked home along the country lanes. A special cake, called the mothering cake, was often brought along to provide a festive touch. Another kind of cake was the "simnel cake," which was a rich fruit cake. Legend has it that the cake was named for a man named Simon and his wife, Nell, who argued about whether the cake should be baked or boiled. In the end they did both, so the cake was named after them: Sim-Nell. The fourth Sunday of Lent was a festive day, also called Refreshing Sunday, referring to a day when people were able to relax their fast and enjoy their families, giving relief to those who found fasting an ordeal. It is also a day when the relaxed atmosphere allows the clergy to wear rose-colored vestments, instead of purple, and have flowers on the altar. Unlike other Sundays during Lent, organ music was allowed. Whole families attended church together, later sharing dinner during which the mother was treated as queen of the feast. St. John's is undergoing a transition of leadership and is served on alternate Sundays by two interim clerics: the Revs. Donald Jaikes and Donald Lillpopp of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Spring Hill. Jaikes, who will preside over Sunday's service, said "in those early days there were so many children the family could not always feed and keep them, so the children were often sent to serve as indentured servants." Lillpopp said he has been involved with Mothering Sunday services since the early 1960s. "We had the blessing of the simnel cake and at the end of the Eucharist we shared it at coffee hour. It's more like having a fruitcake than what we generally think of as cake in the United States," he said. What makes the service different, said Lillpopp, is the atmosphere changes as the Lenten discipline is relaxed. "It's more of a mood of celebration because of having the cake at that time. In medieval times there was nothing; Shrove Tuesday was the time to eat up all the goodies and there wouldn't be any celebrations until Easter Day and this was a break from that restraint." The 68-year-old retired priest said the celebration of Mothering Sunday is fairly common. He said the many information sources on the Web are proof of its prevalence. Jaikes said St. John's will offer a bouquet of red roses on the altar, symbolic of the gift children brought to their mothers. Also, the worship services will be followed by collation, symbolic of the temporary cessation of the fast. For those who take their Lenten discipline seriously, Mothering Sunday makes a nice break during the Lenten fast.
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