Questions:

1.What can you learn from this passage?

Mother's Day

        Why do we celebrate Mothering Sunday and Mother's Day? It is a holiday that is celebrated throughout the world, although not always in May.

        But who started the celebrations? The experts don't seem to have answers for the question, but they can trace family celebrations honoring Moms back to the Middle Ages in Europe.

        Children as young as eight or nine would leave home to learn their trade as an apprentice or to become servants in the homes of the wealthy. These children usually were in neighboring towns, but transportation was hard to come by and expensive. For most of the year they did not get to see their family. During Lent, before preparations for the Easter feasts required them to be busy and back at work, the young people would be allowed to return to their homes and families for a weekend. This became known as "going a-mothering."

        Children walked the roads picking spring wildflowers to give to their mothers when they arrived back at their homes. They often brought small gifts from the merchants （商人）or nobles（贵族） they worked for as presents for the family, including the traditional simnel cake（重油水果蛋糕）.

        The Sunday of their return the whole family would go to church and present gifts to the mothers and offerings to the church. This was a day of feasting when all of the restrictions of Lent were put aside for the day...in a way it was the Easter celebration for the working classes. This feast day became known as Mothering Sunday. After Mothering Sunday, the children would return to their labors and would not visit home again until Christmas time.

        The tradition of gifts, flowers and festive meals has endured（经历） to become what we know as Mother's Day. Here are some of the best sites to explore how and why people celebrated Mother's Day long before there were e-cards and online florists.