Lent

Lent is the forty-six day period just prior to Easter Sunday. It begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Maundy Thursday which is the day before Good Friday. During this period of Lent, it is customary these days to give something up such as chocolate, biscuits, or smoking cigarettes even. But in past centuries Lent was a time of fasting when it was forbidden by the church to eat any dairy products or meat.

Also known as 'Fat Tuesday' or 'Mardi Gras', Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday. It gets it's name from the word 'shrive' which means to confess, as it was customary to go to church the day before Lent started to confess sins and get absolution.
The English custom of eating pancakes on this day, began by the need to use up the last of the dairy products before Lent began. And somewhere along the way began the tradition of Pancake Races, where housewives, wearing their aprons, race eachother along the street, each holding a frying pan with a pancake in it, which must be tossed into the air 3 times before passing the finish line. These days these races are often held at schools, with the children taking part instead of the adults, as either part of a lesson combining cookery, religion and the history of Lent, or just for the fun of it!

In Britain, Mothering Sunday is the fourth Sunday in Lent. Although it's often called 'Mothers Day' it has no connection with the American holiday of that name.
Some historians claim that Mothering Sunday was originally an ancient spring festival dedicated to the Mother Goddess. The Roman religious celebration known as Hilaria lasted for three days from March 15th to 18th, and was dedicated to the worship of Cybele, a Mother Goddess. It is believed that the ceremonies in honor of Cybele were adapted by the early church to venerate the Mother of Christ, and custom began to dictate that a person should visit the church of their baptism on this day.
Around the 1600's, the custom began for apprentices and servants to be given this one day off a year to visit their family church and their family. The girls used to bake a Simnel cake to give to their mothers, which because of the Lenten Fast, was kept till Easter. It was also customary for the children to pick bunches of wild flowers from the hedgerows, while walking home along the country lanes, and to give these to their mothers. The whole family attended church together and there was a special dinner at which the mother was treated as queen of the feast.
Today it is a day when children give presents, flowers, and cards to their mothers.

This is the day before Good Friday and Christians remember this day as the one when Christ washed his disciples' feet before the Last Supper. The word Maundy is derived from the Latin word mandatum meaning 'commandment, as at the end of the Last Supper, Christ gave his disciples the commandment to love one another.

In Britain, the Sovereign takes part in the CEREMONY OF THE ROYAL MAUNDY.
This ceremony is held in a great cathedral and involves the distribution of Maundy Money to deserving senior citizens (one man and one woman for each year of the sovereign's age), usually chosen for having done service in their community.
They receive ceremonial red and white purses which contain coins made especially for the occassion. The white purse contains one silver Maundy coin for each year of the monarch's reign. The red purse contains ordinary money in place of other gifts that used to be given to the poor.
The first recorded instance of the monarch giving money was when King John gave 13 pence to each of 13 poor men in the year 1213. This was probably in commemoration of the number of people at the Last Supper. Maundy Money as such started in the reign of Charles II in 1662, prior to this, ordinary coinage was used for Maundy gifts.
In the 17th centuary and earlier, the King or Queen would wash the feet of the selected poor people as a gesture of humility and in remembrance of Christ washing the feet of his disciples. The last monarch to do this was James II. In the 19th centuary, the red purse was substituted for the various gifts of food and clothing that were given previously.