WITTENBURG, GERMANY — The second World Flour Day will be celebrated on March 20.

This day is dedicated to one of the most important foods of humankind, a staple that has nourished people every day for millennia, contributing to health, well-being and prosperity. It has had great influence on the political, economic and cultural development of societies. This commemorative day was inaugurated by the FlourWorld Museum in Wittenburg in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany.

“This year World Flour Day will again be observed under special conditions,” said idea-giver and initiator Carsten Blum. “Last year face-to-face meetings were likewise very restricted. Nevertheless, farmers, millers and the entire flour processing industry, from New York to Sydney, from Buenos Aires to Mexico City, from Istanbul to Moscow, marked the day with many creative and digital activities. So this year again we’re encouraging all participants in the value chain to commemorate the importance of flour and the role it plays.”

Accordingly there will be many initiatives on March 20.

“Last year we received lots of photos and videos of celebrations, at companies and mills large and small,” Blum said.

Bakers showed the great variety of products that are made from flour every day, and they baked their regional specialties. Turkish flat bread and Mexican wheat tortillas are just two examples. A high point was the flour sack that a mill made especially for World Flour Day.

“This year we will again collect all the ideas in our museum and document them for the future,” Blum said. “This year FlourWorld will also create a special sack for this 20th of March, and it will receive a place of honor.”

Founded in 2008, in a cultural history procession through its exhibits the museum illuminates the effects that flour had on people between the neolithic and industrial revolutions, and will have in the future. It also houses the world’s largest collection of flour sacks. The illustrations on the over 3,600 sacks from 140 countries tell the story of what grain, flour and bread mean to the people of the world.

March 20 was chosen because it is in the middle of the solstice, which varies between March 19 and March 21. In the Northern Hemisphere, this is the beginning of spring, the time of planting. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is the start of autumn and harvest.