Dear vibrant reader,
The heralds of Spring are popping up everywhere in the northern hemisphere, be they the early yellow blooms (dandelions, daffodils, daisies), the frisky birdsong of mating and nesting birds, and the evening stretch of mellow sunlight. Mother’s Day takes place this weekend in Ireland/UK. It’s interesting to note how this date differs from many other countries around the world.
Mother’s Day in this region is aligned to the fourth Sunday of Lent1, a Christian period of reflection that leads up to the important festival of Easter. Mother’s Day coincides with Laetare Sunday in the church calendar; its name comes from the Latin ‘rejoice’.
This was a day of respite from the usual restrictions of Lent imposed during old church practices. For instance, it used to be forbidden to be married during Lent, but it was permissible on Laetare Sunday. It was a welcome breather during the forty-day period of fasting and praying, and people were allowed to cut loose a little. In Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day always falls during Lent so that was the day when it was traditional to enjoy whatever indulgence you’d given up for the Lenten period. Of course, the very observant refused to skip any day and no doubt gained extra merit for their pious restraint.
Laetare Sunday also became ‘Mothering Sunday’ during the Middle Ages. In that era, wherever you were baptised — thus becoming a child of the church — was your ‘mother church’. If you moved later in life and began partaking of services at a different church, that became your ‘daughter’ church. So on Mothering Sunday many people would travel back to the church of their baptism to attend mass. This was a time when the average person might only move a townland away — if they even did that —to find work or marry. People took the day off to visit this location, and often that resulted in a reunion with their mother and assorted relatives.
This day of relaxation and relating also involved cake — with the Simnel cake2 being a popular treat (it has since become associated with Easter). It’s a fruit cake with almond paste and eleven balls of marzipan on top.3 There are many recipes out there for this extravagance, but here’s one via the Ballymaloe Cookery School (famous in this country, and run by celebrity chef, Darina Allen).
Lots of countries celebrate Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in May, thanks to the efforts of Anna Jarvis in the USA. She pushed for a holiday to celebrate mothers and all their hard work after the death of her own mother. President Woodrow Wilson declared it a national observance in 1914.4 Over the years it gained in popularity throughout the United States. This was also during the period when two World Wars destroyed families across the globe. Many military personnel in dangerous situations became acutely reminded of their bonds with the people who nurtured them during their childhood. The holiday gained in popularity in the 1950s and has grown to be an important holiday ever since.
The above painting is an interesting one to highlight in relation to Mother’s Day since it was drawn by the extraordinary American artist, Mary Cassatt, who remained resolutely single and never had children.
She was born into a well-to-do family in Pennsylvania in 1844, but spent the majority of her adult life in France. Her parents were Robert Cassatt (a financial investor) and Katherine Johnston. Katherine was well-educated and came from a banking family, and it was reported that Katherine had a strong influence on her artistic daughter. Louisine Havemeyer, Mary Cassatt’s lifelong friend, and a well respected art collector and philanthropist, said: ‘Anyone who had the privilege of knowing Mary Cassatt's mother would know at once that it was from her and her alone that [Mary] inherited her ability."5
Becoming a professional artist in the mid-nineteenth century was a scandalous proposal for a woman, but Mary doggedly pursued her education anyway. She travelled around Europe refining her skills and meeting most of the influential painters of the era.6 Mary often centred the ordinary aspects of women’s lives in many of her paintings, breaking from the staid conventions of the time. With Mary, it feels like her work is a snapshot of a moment, rather than a slice of static theatre. There is genuine feeling and intimacy in her work, which is a hallmark of the impressionist style, which influenced her for a period of time.
She fought throughout her career for her work to be viewed with the same regard as her male peers, and although she disliked making political statements she whole-heartedly supported the push for women’s suffrage. She exhibited her work in a fundraising exhibition in the Knoedler Gallery in NY in 1915, organised by Havemeyer, for the Woman Suffrage Campaign Fund.
It included the painting, ‘Woman with a Sunflower’, painted in 1905. The use of mirrors and reflection in the piece point toward an awareness of the stereotypical need for women to be ‘on display’, and the fact that the mother is holding the mirror to reflect her daughter seems to indicate the difficulty of how we model behaviour for children.7 Yet, the daughter’s reflection is boldly staring at the viewer, in an assessing manner.
When you consider the fact that the sunflower was a symbol of the suffrage movement in the USA, there is another layer to the painting. The child’s gaze also attains a different aspect: it is asking for a new future, helped by her mother’s advocacy.
Mary may not have had children, but she was a mentor to other, younger painters, and inspired the next generation through her art and her bold precedent. It’s a fine example that there are many ways to help others to flourish. Above all she believed in herself and her ability to improve and bestow beauty upon the world, even in the face of opposition and prejudice. She nurtured her talent for art like a precious child and never betrayed it.
Mary Cassatt was both the woman with the sunflower and the child upon her lap.
The hardest task some people face is to nurture themselves. It’s easier to look upon the face of a vulnerable baby and love them with your entire heart than it is to regard yourself in the mirror and state, ‘I love you’. How can this idea seem so revolutionary or so twee?
You don’t always hit the jackpot when it comes to the primary person who was there to mother you, so aspire to be the most amazing mother to yourself — be the cheerleading team, the burst of sparkling confetti and the high-stepping marching band whose trumpets gleam with pride against the azure sky.
Lent comes from the Old English word, lencten, meaning ‘spring season’.
So the holiday has a plethora of names, such as Simnel Sunday, Sunday of the Five Loaves, and Refreshment Sunday.
The balls signify each of the Christian apostles… Judas is omitted.
Jarvis was not the first woman for push for such a holiday. There were at least two other proposals, including Julia Ward Howe who suggested a “Mother’s Peace Day’ to ‘promote global unity after the horrors of the American Civil War and Europe’s Franco-Prussian War’. From Katharine Antolini’s book, Memorializing Motherhood: Anna Jarvis and the Struggle for Control of Mother’s Day, quoted here.
She was lucky to retain a basic stipend to live on, but her father refused to pay for any art supplies, and initially Mary’s ability to attract patrons was limited. She worked to strengthen the quality of her art rather than relying on quick sales via ‘potboilers’ (sentimental, popular scenes).
I am struck by how you could put a smartphone into that picture instead of a mirror and it would tell a new tale of how we reflect and consider ourselves.
This was so beautifully written ❤️ thank you for such a beautiful well written blog