This weekend supermarkets and florists are full of daffodils and tomorrow many a Mum or Granny will be given a bunch along with a card, or maybe a present of jewellery, or home-made gift.
However many may not be aware of the ages old link between daffodils and what was traditionally called in the UK, Mothering Sunday, or why the exact date varies yearly and is different to the date of Mother's Day in the USA.
Tomorrow, is the fourth Sunday in Lent (the Christian Season leading up to Easter), and many Churches will focus on the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ and some will use pink altar clothes and pink vestments in her honour. Many will reflect upon the importance of Mothers and small sprays of daffodils will be blessed and given out to children to give to their Mums.
This tradition goes back to time when boys and girls that we would regard as teenagers would often work away from home, often at large houses. With no right to regular holiday leave they were often given the fourth Sunday in Lent, which was seen a break from the strict Lenten fasts and restrictions, off.
This practice spread and with it the idea of visiting home and thanking their own Mothers and with little or no money, as they walked home through a mainly rural England they would pick flowers as a gift. One flower always in bloom at this time was the Lent Lily, or as it is more often called, the Daffodil.
Simple beginnings and unlike so many of these special days we seem to have imported from the USA, not invented by a card company!