Taiwan observed mother’s day on Sunday, along with many other countries in the world.
President Ma Ying-jeou marked the day by participating in an event organized by Buddha’s Light International Association at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial in downtown Taipei. The ceremony was a joint celebration of the birth of Buddha and Mother’s Day.
In a speech at the event, the president spoke about how his own mother had passed away in May of last year. He said that even though he isn’t much of a singer, he had written lyrics to a song that he and his sisters had sung to their mother on her death bed. He changed the words from the Happy Birthday song to: “Thank you, mother for giving birth to me, thank you for raising me, thank you for teaching me, and thank you for loving me.”
President Ma was joined at Sunday’s event by a whole host of other top ranking politicians, including: Vice President Wu Den-yih, Legislature Vice President Hung Hsiu-chu, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, and Democratic Progressive Party Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen.