JINAN, May 12 (Xinhua) -- As many people around the
world celebrate Mother's Day on Sunday, a Chinese scholar and member of the
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) has made it his
mission to create China's own Mother's Day festival.
Li Hanqiu, a memeber of the CPPCC
National Committee, believes that the second day of the fourth Lunar month,
which falls on May 18 this year, should be the day when mothers are honored in
China as it coincides with the birth date of fourth century BC Confucian
philosopher Mencius, whose mother is regarded as being synonymous with maternal
devotion and love.
Li has called for the traditional western gift of
carnations to be changed to day lilies, which in ancient times were planted by
mothers in their courtyards as a sign of sorrow at their children leaving home.
"In a country with a deeply-rooted tradition of
filial piety, we should have our own occasion for people to express love for
mothers according to Chinese customs," Li said.
Li has founded a non-government organization called
the "Chinese Mothers' Festival Promotion Society" with the support of around 100
Confucian scholars and lecturers of moral ethics.
The society plans to celebrate its first Chinese
Mother Festival on May 18 in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province.
"This is our first year and the celebration will only
be held in Zoucheng (city in Shandong Province) and Shijiazhuang, but we believe
it will be accepted by more Chinese people at home and abroad if it is conducive
to revitalizing our traditional culture of piety," said Li.
In a collaboration between Li and the local
government, work has begun on a theme park of maternity culture in Zoucheng, the
birthplace of Mencius.
"Even though the western Mother's Day is becoming
more and more popular worldwide, countries like France, Egypt, South Korea,
Portugal and Indonesia are all celebrating their own mother's days in their own
ways," said Lu Zonghai, secretary of Li's society.
"In China, the Mother Festival should have deeper
cultural meanings, rather than just being about business," Lu said, "which is
why we want it on a different day."
According to Li, the society plans to bombard a
million students in 100 cities with pamphlets advocating filial piety over the
next few years.
"To ensure the festival is entrenched in Chinese society may bean arduous process, but it is definitely worth trying, because it is an attempt to revitalize our traditional culture that is being left behind," said Chen Xuxia, an academician with Hebei Academy of Social Sciences.
Print
