I have always been rather irritated by the (widely held)view that Mothering Sunday is a put-up job by the greetings card business.

Welcome back, jo - too long no see. I certainly did not intend to give irritation, as I had never even heard of Mothering Sunday. The festival you describe is, I suspect, almost unknown outside the relatively small community of the devout, and for most Zildians, the only such day known is Mother's Day, which is shamelessly crass and commercial - a commercial knock-off of the pious original, perhaps.