Mother’s Day time to pamper

Sunday is Mother’s Day and in many countries, children pamper their mothers by making breakfast, giving flowers, cards and gifts. They also tend to be on their best behavior the entire day.

The zoo in Kaiserslautern-Siegelbach invites all mothers for a free day at the zoo. All mothers receive a coupon for free coffee and cake at the zoo’s restaurant.

The history of Mother’s Day dates back to 1907, when Anne Jarvis from Philadelphia, had the idea to choose a day to thank mothers from all over the world for their love and unselfish care, exactly one year after her mother died. One year later, Jarvis’ idea became real — on May 10, 1908, Philadelphia became known as the first town in the world to celebrate Mother’s Day.

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. Before Mother’s Day was acknowledged in Germany, mothers were not honored for their devoted work, but they were rewarded for all of the 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 children and the gold medal to mothers with eight children.

After the war, it took some time until Germans began to celebrate Mother’s Day again.