So I went to my Google search bar, and typed in Mother's Day. That brought up a Wikipedia page with the story of the American holiday, created in 1912 by Anne Jarvis, and celebrated every year on the second Sunday in May. It also mentioned that this is not to be confused with "Mothering Sunday," which is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of lent and stems from a celebration which started sometime around the mid-16th century somewhere in the Roman Empire. At this time, people were expected to go "a-mothering" by returning to their "mother church." Along the way, this Sunday in the Roman Catholic church calendar (as well as the Anglican and Western-Rite Orthodox, among others) has also been called Simnel Sunday and Refreshment Sunday (because of cakes being served, apparently) and Rose Sunday (because of the color of robes the priests would wear). Oh... And Simnel Cakes are a light fruit cake covered in Marzipan -- much like a Christmas Cake, but lighter.
And... Well... Now you know what my problem was... Err... Is.
I remember when I was a kid and I'd go pull the Encyclopedia off the shelf to look things up (my parents were firm believers in the "Why don't you go look that up?" school of question answering), and I would find myself doing the same kind of thing. But, had I been looking up Mother's Day in that same situation, I'd probably have started out in one volume and stopped after the second one or so. I'd have gotten my answer, learned something new, and then stopped.
But, with the speedy and ubiquitous nature of the internet, these days I simply find myself clicking from one hyperlink to the next. (Honestly, I'm surprised that I got back to writing this entry before searching Simnel cakes on the FoodTV website.) And people wonder why the internet generations seem to have shorter attention spans than most.
Anyway... What was it that I wanted to say? Oh. Right.
Happy Mother's Day, Mom! I hope you had a nice day of roses... or Simnel cakes... or something like that.
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