home once again some fond youth or maiden who had gone to seek their
fortunes in the town, and many happy recollections would long linger
of "Mothering" Sunday. The cakes alluded to in the above verse,
which children presented to their parents on these occasions, were
called Simnells. In some parts of England--in Lancashire,
Shropshire, and Herefordshire--these cakes are still eaten on
Mid-Lent Sunday. Possibly they had some religious signification, for
the Saxons were in habit of eating consecrated cakes at their
festivals. The name Simnell is derived from a Latin word signifying
fine flour, and not from the mythical persons, Simon and Nell, who
are popularly supposed to have invented the cake. Hot cross buns are
a relic of an ancient rite of the Saxons, who ate cakes in honour of
the goddess of spring, and the early Christian missionaries strove
to banish the heathen ideas associated with the cakes (which latter
the people would not abandon) by putting a cross upon them.

In memory of our Lord's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when the
people took branches of palm-trees and scattered them in the way, on
Palm Sunday our ancestors went in procession through the town or
village, bearing branches of willow, yew, or box (as there were no
palms growing in this country), which were subsequently carried to
the church and offered at the altar. This custom lingered on after
the Reformation, and until recent times the practice of going
a-palming, or gathering branches of willow, on the Saturday before
Palm Sunday, has continued. Sometimes in mediæval times a wooden
figure representing our Saviour riding upon an ass was drawn along
by the crowds in the procession, and the people scattered their
willow branches before the figure as it passed.

Thursday before Easter Day was called Shere, or Maundy, Thursday.