「慈母手中線，遊子身上衣，臨行密密縫，意恐遲遲歸，誰言寸草心，報得三春暉。」《遊子吟》（唐、孟郊）。
母親節的起源
母親節這一天，是一個感謝母親的節日，在世界各地，母親節的日期有所不同。Mother’s Day is a celebration honouring mothers and motherhood, motherly love, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in spring. 最早的母親節，起源於古希臘，在這一天，古希臘人向希臘眾神之母 Rhea mother of the gods 致敬。其後17世紀中葉，節日流傳到英國。1913年，美國國會確定將每年5月的第二個星期日作為法定的母親節。母親們在這一天通常會收到禮物；在許多人心目中，康乃馨 carnation 被視作最適合獻給母親的鮮花之一。推動母親節的 Anna Jarvis 的媽媽，生前最愛的康乃馨，也就成了美國母親節的象徵。
母親大同小異的叫法
Mother 母親、媽媽、媽咪的英語，出現大同小異的叫法，the word mother appears in many forms such as：
Mum: Help me, Mum.
Mummy: Mummy, look what I’ve got!
Mom: Say, Mom, can I have anything to eat?
Mommy: Would you tell your mommy I am here please?
Ma: Anything to eat, Ma?
Mammy: Ask your mammy, if I could have a word with her please.
Mama: My mama cannot speak to you; she is engaged at the moment.
Momma: His momma told him to go home.
當中 Mum and Mummy 屬於英式日常英語；Ma and Mammy 多用於勞動階級以及稱呼年長的婦女；Mama 主要是兒語，多用於上層階級。
Mother’s Boy
母語 mother tongue 是本國語 native language，第一語言 first language，the language that you first learn to speak when you are a child：Mary speaks English without a trace of an accent—you’d never think her mother tongue is Chinese 瑪利說英語不帶一點特殊的口音，她的母語是漢語。祖國 motherland is the country that you were born in and that you feel a strong emotional connection with。被母親溺愛寵壞的孩子叫 mother’s boy, a spoiled son 或mother’s darling：Robert was often teased at school for being a mother’s darling。過於依賴母親的孩子的說法是 tied to one’s mother’s apron strings = too dependent on one’s mother。你自自然然非常喜歡幹的事，可以用 mother’s milk, a thing that you really enjoy naturally：I love walking along the seaside，it’s mother’s milk to me 漫步海濱是我最喜歡做的事；Jazz is mother’s milk to me 爵士音樂對我來說是不可或缺的東西。Mother Nature 則指大自然 the natural world。
有其母，必有其女
母親和女兒的關係最密切。有其母，必有其女。女兒最容易受母親影響，所以有 Like mother, like daughter 的說法：Daughters resemble their mothers; daughters tend to do what their mothers did before them；Like mother，like daughter, Liza’s mother is mad about chocolate, too。母親對女兒的影響很大，因此，如果男孩子想贏得女孩子的芳心，最好先討好她的母親：He that would the daughter win, must with the mother first begin = he who wants to win the daughter, must begin with the mother first，簡言之，娶女先討好其母：If you want to marry a girl, you should find a way to impress her mother, so that the mother will favour her marrying you。談婚論嫁，論年齡，she is old enough to be someone’s mother，女方足以當男方的母親，暗示男女雙方在愛情或性關係方面不相配，女方太老了，this saying suggests that a romantic or sexual relationship between two people is not appropriate, a way of saying that a person is too old。
經驗是智慧之母
Necessity is the mother of invention 需要是發明之母。This proverb means that when people really need to do something, they will find a way to do it，窮則變，變則通，a difficult problem very often forces people to think of a solution to it，另一說法是：Want is the mother of industry 需要是勤勞之母。例如人因為需要衣食温飽，所以才勤勉工作；也有人認為如果沒有戰爭的威脅，可能永遠不會發明雷達。Experience is the mother of wisdom 經驗是智慧之母。This idiomatic expression is used to mean that people learn from what happens to them. 未做過父母，不懂得父母親對子女的愛多麼深：You will never understand the love parents have for their children until you get your own children: Experience is really the mother of wisdom.
本專欄逢周二、五發表
