中美文化差异春节与圣诞节
A Comparison between the Spring Festival and Christmas Day
Festival is a cultural phenomenon,which has been a part of many people’s life. Spring Festival and Christmas Day are respectively the most significant festivals in China and the America. These two festivals are the essences of the traditional Chinese culture and American culture. However,there has been different cultural connotation between the Spring Festival and Christmas .
1 The origin of the festival
Spring Festival is the most chief traditional Chinese festival. Its history spans over 4000 years. It is intended to bring happiness and good luck in the coming year. It originally falls on January 1st in the lunar calendar.Traditionally, the Spring Festival begins from around ten days before the Lunar New Year and lasts for fifteen days ,then it comes to an end when Lantern Festival ends.
There has been many tales and myths about the origin of the Spring Festival . In Chinese,“Guo Nian”means celebrating the Spring Festival. According to the tale, “Guo Nian” is the celebration of people’s victory over a fierce wild beast named“Nian”. In the ancient times, “Nian” was said to be the fiercest beast in the world that preyed on people on the New Year Eve . In the long process of fighting with“Nian”, peopl e got to know its weaknesses, such as fear of the color red, big sounds and flames.Therefor, people pasted red paper on their doors, constantly beat drums , lit firecrackers to keep Nian away. Nian fled and never showed up any more, but the customs were
retained . According to another tale,the Spring Festival originated in the Shang Dynasty .Emperor Yao took the throne and led people to
worship the heaven and the earth. Folks offered sacrifices to gods and ancestors that blessed agricultural harvest. After a long time, this function has greatly weakened and is being replaced with entertainment and social interaction.
Christmas is a religious holiday that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ. However, nobody know the actual birthday of Jesus.The first mention of December 25th as the birthday of Jesus occurred in the 4th century in an early Roman calender .And then Christmas is the feast of the nativity of Jesus. The church chose December 25th for a Christian holy day in the hope of giving Christian meaning to existing pagan celebrations of the winter solstice. As a result, many pagan customs gradually became part of the Christmas celebration. By the 12th century, Christmas had become Christmas
the
most
,for
important
religious
festival
in the
Europe.Actually,in
Day
America,not
everyone
celebrates Until
instance,Jews. nineteen
century,Christmas had become popular in the world since the concept of Santa Claus who was a jolly fat old man with a white beard and red suit ,sending gifts to good children on Silent Night was made.
2 The customs of festival
Traditionally,the Spring Festival customs include cleaning the house, pasting the Spring Festival couplets, pasting the New Year prints, , lighting the firecrackers and fireworks, family reunion dinner on New Yea r’s Eve, staying-up, visiting, paying a new year call and symbolic food.The Chinese character “Fu”in red that means good luck are usually pasted on doors and
walls .Especially, an up-down “Fu” sounds like “fu dao le “in Chinese that means the arrival of g ook luck. The firecracker was originally used to frighten and drive off the evil and monsters.Now,it means being
away from the old one ,welcoming the new one .On the Spring Festival’s Eve , people prepare sumptuous dishes and share reunion dinner with their family happily. The special dishes such as jiaozi, tangyuan , symbolize the joys of harvest, reunion and completeness. During the Spring Festival Eve, people tend to enjoy the CCTV Spring Festival Gala ,have talks ,play poker or mahjong and stay up late to welcome the beginning of the new year .In addition ,at the beginning of the new year ,people will go to visit relatives and friends. The elder will send their children the gift money and their best wishes .
On the contrast ,during the Christmas , American would visit friends ,sent Christmas cards and exchange gifts, sing the carols and decorate the Christmas tree. Christmas celebrations tend to bring most people home to be with family and friends. In this way, it is similar to the Spring Festival. Red and green are Christmas color.American prefer to decorate home with evergreens. They thought the evergreen represents the continuance of life that could bring good luck and the return of spring.
In
US,every
family
traditionally
prepare
the
turkey ,cranberry sauce and plum pudding on Christmas Eve. Eggnog is the most popular Christmas beverage in many homes. After meal ,children hang stocking by the fireplace,hoping the Santa, the spirit of the Christmas ,will fill them with candy and toys. What’s more, the fa mily would gather around the Christmas tree to open their gifts and exchange Merry Christmas greeting with each other on Christmas morning .
3 conclusion
Spring Festival and Christmas,which both reflect the most delicate and representative respect of cult ure,is on behalf of people’s hope and expectation that is the essence of human’s daily life.Through the comparison between these two
festivals,we can absorb the American excellent culture ,in order to protect and promote our Chinese culture.