麻烦大家帮忙提供一些有关中国传统的英文小故
Chinese Ne Year (中国农历新年)
The Chinese Ne Year has a great history. In other traditions, by this time in the year, most resolutions - made on December 31 - have been subtly fotten and placed in a cupboard marked maybe next year. Hoever, all hope is not lost, as there's a second chance to start afresh ith the celebration of Chinese Ne Year on February 12th.
The Chinese Ne Year is very similar to the Western one, sathed in traditions and rituals.
The origin of the Chinese Ne Year is itself centuries old - in fact, too old to actually be traced. It is popularly recognised as the Spring Festival and celebrations last 15 days.
Preparations tend to begin a month from the date of the Chinese Ne Year (similar to a Western Christmas), hen people start buying presents, decoration materials, food and clothing. A huge clean-up gets underay days before the Ne Year, hen Chinese houses are cleaned from to bottom, to seep aay any traces of bad luck, and doors and indopanes are given a ne coat of paint, usually red. The doors and indos are then decorated ith paper cuts and couplets ith themes such as happiness, ealth and longevity printed on them.
The eve of the Ne Year is perhaps the most exciting part of the event, as anticipation creeps in. Here, traditions and rituals are very carefully observed in everything from food to clothing. Dinner is usually a feast of seafood and dumplings, signifying different good ishes. Delicacies include prans, for liveliness and happiness, dried oysters (or ho xi), for all things good, ra fish salad or yu sheng to bring good luck and prosperity, Fai-hai (Angel Hair), an edible hair-like seaeed to bring prosperity, and dumplings boiled in ater (Jiaozi) signifying a long-lost good ish for a family. It's usual to ear something red as this colour is meant to ard off evil spirits - but black and hite are out, as these are associated ith mourning. After dinner, the family sit up for the night playing cards, board games or atching TV programmes dedicated to the oasion. At midnight, the sky is lit up by fireorks.
On the day itself, an ancient custom called Hong Bao, meaning Red Packet, takes place. This involves married couples giving children and unmarried adults money in red envelopes. Then the family begins to say greetings from door to door, first to their relatives and then their neighbours. Like the Western saying let bygones be bygones, at Chinese Ne Year, grudges are very easily cast aside.
The end of the Ne Year is marked by the Festival of Lanterns, hich is a celebration ith singing, dancing and lantern shos.
Although celebrations of the Chinese Ne Year vary, the underlying message is one of peace and happiness for family members and friends.
(chinese.ne-year.co.uk)
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Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节)
The joyous Mid-Autumn Festival, the third and last festival for the living, as celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth moon, around the time of the autumn equinox. Many referred to it simply as the Fifteenth of the Eighth Moon. In the Western calendar, the day of the festival usually ourred sometime beteen the second eek of September and the second eek ofOctober.
This day as also considered a harvest festival since fruits, vegetables and grain had been harvested by this time and food as abundant. With delinquent aounts settled prior to the festival , it as a time for relaxation and celebration. Food offerings ere placed on an altar set up in the courtyard. Apples, pears, peaches, grapes, pomegranates , melons, oranges and pomelos might be seen. Special foods for the festival included moon cakes, cooked taro, edible snails from the taro patches or rice paddies cooked ith seet basil, and ater caltrope, a type of ater chestnut resembling black buffalo horns. Some people insisted that cooked taro be included because at the time of creation, taro as the first food discovered at night in the moonlight. Of all these foods, it could not be omitted from the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The round moon cakes, measuring about three inches in diameter and one and a half inches in thickness, resembled Western fruitcakes in taste and consistency. These cakes ere made ith melon seeds, lotus seeds, almonds, minced meats, bean paste, orange peels and lard. A golden yolk from a salted duck egg as placed at the center of each cake, and the golden bron crust as decorated ith symbols of the festival. Traditionally, thirteen moon cakes ere piled in a pyramid to symbolize the thirteen moons of a plete year, that is, telve moons plus one intercalary moon.
(chinavoc.)