Classical Antiquity 

Most writers agree that the earliest celebrations of a kind of Mother's Day were in ancient Greece. These did not honour our biological mothers, but rather the Goddess Rhea, wife of Cronus and mother of Zeus.

In Rome, there was the Hilaria, a springtime festival honouring the Mother Goddess Cybele and her consort Attis. (Not to be confused with another Hilaria in the fall, which celebrated Isis and Osiris.)

Both Rhea and Cybele were seen as Mother Goddesses.

 Early Christianity 

The early church adapted the classical celebrations to honour Mary, the Mother of Christ. On the fourth Sunday of Lent, people visited their "mother church" with gifts to be offered in her name.

This was a time when people from outlying regions travelled to the main church of their parish instead of attending mass in the little local churches, or when people who had left home returned to the church where they had been baptised.

 

  

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