Via Newsweek:

North Koreans can no longer express feelings of affection for their mothers on the country’s Mother’s Day celebration as they have reportedly been banned from writing “thank you” messages on bouquets of flowers given to mark the occasion.

“The regime has begun restricting the practice of attaching ribbons signifying a ‘thank you’ or ‘I love you’ since it encroaches upon the significance of cult-of-personality offerings of flower baskets in front of portraits [of former North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il],” a North Korean resident told the Daily NK news website, a South Korea-based publisher that reports on North Korea via a network of anonymous sources in the country.

“It is really sad that people have to express thanks to ‘the father’ Kim Jong Un after every little thing he does, but we cannot express thanks to our actual mothers on Mother’s Day,” the source added.