Mother’s Day is a western invention, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been embraced by China, much like Christmas has (albeit with Chinese characteristics).

But some schools in Guangdong have taken it a step further, using Mother’s Day as an opportunity to reintroduce the concept of “filial piety”.

Two schools, one each in Guangzhou and Dongguan, promoted the idea of kneeling, foot-washing and letter-writing to show respect for one’s parents. The venerable Global Times picks it up from here:

Students kneeled before their parents Wednesday, handing them “thank you” letters in a Guangzhou-based Guangdong Experimental High School-organized activity, the Southeast Morning Post reported on Friday.

Kneeling down was the highest form of respect in China, Principal Zheng Zhiqin told the Fuzhou-based paper, and the ceremony would help the students mark their feelings for their parents.

Thousands of students in Dongguan, Guangdong Province also kneeled Sunday in an event aimed at promoting filial piety.

“It’s good to promote filial piety among the younger generation, but kneeling and washing feet are not necessarily the best ways,” Lao Kaisheng, a professor at the School of Education at Beijing Normal University, said Sunday.

As mentioned, Mother’s Day isn’t officially celebrated in China, but almost every Chinese person I know at least made a call home to mom on the day. It’s interesting to see China put a uniquely historical Chinese element into the western holiday, to make it more of its own.