Good Characters, Inc. Blog

Mu-Qin-Jie Kuai-Le

Mu Qin (pronounced moo cheen) is a mother.

Jie (pronounced jee-eh) is a festival day or holiday.

Kuai Le (pronounced kwie-luh) is happiness, joy, pleasure, delight, or rejoicing.

So Mother + Day + Happy, pronounced moo cheen jee-eh kwie luh, Mu Qin Jie Kuai Le is how you say “Happy Mother’s Day” in Mandarin Chinese.

A distinct feature of the mother “mu” character is presence of two dots. They are said to represent two nipples of a breast-feeding mother. If you look at the ancient Chinese characters you can see a resemblance between the “mother” and the “female” characters. A female character with two dots becomes the mother character. Picture a mother feeding and embracing a baby in her arms. The bottom part of the ancient characters look like legs in a sitting position. The resemblance is less obvious in the modern character.

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