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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 an official day to honor mothers worldwide.
Most children pamper their mothers, give them flowers, candy and cards, and behave well.
The day is almost 100 years old and originates in the United 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 real one year later. Philadelphia was the first-ever city 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. Since then, Mother’s Day became popular in India, China, Mexico, Scandinavia, England and Switzerland.
The first Mother’s Day in Germany was celebrated in 1933. At first, mothers were not honored for their devoted work but were instead rewarded for how 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 a bronze medal to mothers with four children, a silver medal to mothers with six and a gold medal to mothers with eight children.
After the war, it took some time until Germans started celebrating Mother’s Day again. People still had terrible memories of the past and they felt it was inappropriate to celebrate something so closely related to Hitler.
