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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.
If you click on the speaker icon, you will hear exactly how it is pronounced. Click on Play and you will see the correct stroke sequence for writing each character.
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.
| Ancient Characters |
| Female |
Mother |
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| Modern Characters |
| Female |
Mother |
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May 2006
Reference: National Palace Museum http://www.npm.gov.tw/
exhbition/wen0630/b.htm |
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