from Chronicles of Celtic Customs, by Brian Day Mothering Sunday, Mid-Lent Sunday, Fourth Sunday in Lent, Laetare Sunday CELTIC. The Church custom of making donations to one's Mother Church on this day of relaxation from abstinence expanded to include honouring one's own mother, and young people such as servants and apprentices were given the day off to visit their mother and take gifts for food and spring flowers. The flowers were blessed in Church first, and it was customary for the children to take on all their mother's chores for the day. The custom lad lapsed by 1935, to be revived after World War II through the influence of United States servicemen whose own Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May had been instituted in the USA in 1907. -- Pat Connors, Sacramento CA http://www.connorsgenealogy.com All outgoing mail virus free, scanned by Norton 2002