Editing Mothering Sunday (section)

== Early modern continuation ==
[[File:BaptismMCC.JPG|thumb|On Mothering Sunday, people historically have visited the church in which they received the Christian sacrament of [[baptism]].<ref name="Diller1990"/><ref name="PearsonSzoke2009"/>]]
After the [[English Reformation]], the ''[[Book of Common Prayer]]'' continued to assign the same readings. During the 16th century, Christians continued to return to their local mother churches for a service held on Laetare Sunday.<ref name="ODCC">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Cross |first1=F. L. |last2=Livingstone |first2=E. A. |title=The Oxford dictionary of the Christian Church |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780192802903 |edition=3 |article= Mothering Sunday}}</ref> In this context, one's mother church was either the church where one was baptised, the local [[Church of England parish church|parish church]], or the nearest cathedral (the latter being the mother church of all the parish churches in a [[diocese]]).<ref name=bbc>{{cite web |title=Mothering Sunday |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/holydays/motheringsunday_1.shtml |website=Religions – Christianity |publisher=BBC |access-date=4 March 2010}}</ref> Anyone who did this was commonly said to have gone 'mothering', a term recorded by 1644:<ref>{{Cite OED|mothering, n.1|id=122656}}</ref>

<blockquote>
Every Midlent Sunday is a great day at Worcester, when all the children and godchildren meet at the head and cheife of the family and have a feast. They call it the Mothering-day.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Symonds |first1=Richard |title=Diary of the marches of the Royal Army during the great Civil War |date=1859 |publisher=Camden Society |location=Westminster |page=27 |url=https://archive.org/details/royalarmymarches00camduoft}}</ref>
</blockquote>

In later times, Mothering Sunday became a day when domestic servants were given a day off to visit their mother church, usually with their own mothers and other family members.<ref name="DEF">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Simpson |first1=Jacqueline |last2=Roud |first2=Steve |title=A dictionary of English folklore |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780198607663 |article=Mothering Sunday}}</ref>