As we approach the midway point of Lent and purchase our gifts and cards for Mothering Sunday, Richard Tanner explains the history surrounding the fourth Sunday in Lent and asks if it is an opportunity to break our Lenten fast.

Lent seems to be progressing ever so quickly this year. So quickly that, this coming Sunday, we are to reach the midway point between Shrove Tuesday (the "cosmic party day" as the Dean called it in this blog) and Good Friday.

For about 1,000 years, the Sunday in the middle of Lent, has been a little special.

It has been known as Refreshment (or, in Latin, Laetare) Sunday.

In the Middle Ages, the penitential disciplines of Lent were relaxed somewhat and there were some provisions for feasting and celebrations.

This special Sunday has become a chance to lighten up, to pause in the middle of Lent, relax, and get some perspective on how things really are.

In Britain, another custom that has been held on the fourth Sunday of Lent, for about five hundred years, is that of Mothering Sunday.

In the 16th century, the Church required that the people returned to their mother' church or cathedral for that day's service.

The day became known as Mothering Sunday, not through association with mothers, but because of the journey made to the mother' church.

In an age when children as young as ten left home to take up work or apprenticeships elsewhere, this was often the only day in the whole year when families would be reunited.

By the 17th century, it had become a public holiday, when servants and apprentices were given the day off, so that they could fulfill their duties to the Church.

They often brought gifts of flowers and a special cake for their mothers.

The cake, made of a fine wheaten flower, called simila in Latin, has evolved into the traditional Simnel cake.

It is decorated with eleven balls of marzipan, representing the Apostles (excluding Judas).

In recent times, Mothering Sunday has become more like the American Mother's Day with offspring expected to give presents and cards to their mothers.

The original meaning has been largely lost.

However, unlike in America, where Mother's Day is always celebrated on the second Sunday in May, in this country we have retained the significant Christian connection of celebrating Mothering Sunday on the fourth Sunday of Lent.

As you purchase your Mothering Sunday cards this week, do look forward to the fact that this coming Sunday is not only an important day to remember our mothers with tremendous gratitude and affection, but also a day for the whole family, perhaps a day to make a special effort to go to church and a day of general refreshment.

It may not be a day for a "cosmic party", but some kind of feasting would be perfectly in order.

Is this Sunday an opportunity to break Lenten fasts? Maybe you are looking forward to having a special Refreshment Sunday drink or some chocolate this weekend!

Or is it another day to be brave and wait for that glass of champagne with the Dean on Easter morning after the 5am Dawn Eucharist?