Children honor mothers Sunday

When mothers get served breakfast in bed or find a nicely set table Sunday, it’s because of Mother’s Day.

The second Sunday in May is Mother’s Day and worldwide an official day to honor mothers.

Most children pamper their mothers, give flowers, candy and cards, and behave extremely well that day.

The celebration is almost 100 years old and originates in the states. In 1907, exactly one year after her mother died, Anne Jarvis from Philadelphia had the idea to pick a day to thank mothers all over the world for all their love and unselfish care. The idea became reality one year later. Philadelphia was the first city in the world to celebrate Mother’s Day on May 10, 1908.

Six years later, President Woodrow Wilson officially proclaimed the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. In the following years, Mother’s Day became popular in India, China, Mexico, Scandinavia, England and Switzerland.

The first Mother’s Day in Germany was celebrated in 1933. In the initial years in Germany, mothers were not honored for their devoted work but were rewarded for the many children they had.

In 1938, Adolf Hitler awarded mothers with the “mother’s cross” to honor their outstanding help against low birth rates and death.

Each year in August, on the birthday of Hitler’s mother, he gave the bronze medal to mothers with four children, the silver medal to mothers with six and the gold medal to mothers with eight children.

After the war, it took a while until Germans started celebrating Mother’s Day again. People still had terrible memories of the past, as well as the current miserable situation on their minds; they didn’t feel like calling special attention to something that should be normal and taken for granted.

The zoo in Kaiserslautern-Siegelbach will sponsor a special Mother’s Day event Sunday. Mothers are admitted free and will receive a coupon for free coffee and cake.