春節(jié)習(xí)俗英文簡介Customs of the Spring Festival
The Spring Festival is a traditional Chinese festival and also the most important one of the whole year. Through the evolvement of thousands of years， a series of customs are spreading far and wide.
掃塵 Sweeping the Dust
“Dust” is homophonic with "chen”(塵)in Chinese， which means old and past. In this way， "sweeping the dust” before the Spring Festival means a thorough cleaning of houses to sweep away bad luck in the past year. This custom shows a good wish of putting away old things to welcome a new life. In a word， just before the Spring Festival comes， every household will give a thorough cleaning to bid farewell to the old year and usher in the new.
貼春聯(lián) Pasting Spring Couplets
“The Spring Couplet”， also called "couplet” and "a pair of antithetical phrases”， is a special form of literature in China. The Spring Couplet is composed of two antithetical sentences on both sides of the door and a horizontal scroll bearing an inscription， usually an auspicious phrase， above the gate. The sentence pasting on the right side of the door is called the first line of the couplet and the one on the left the second line. On the eve of the Spring Festival， every household will paste on doors a spring couplet written on red paper to give a happy and prosperous atmosphere of the Festival. In the past， the Chinese usually wrote their own spring couplet with a brush or asked others to do for them， while nowadays， it is common for people to buy the printed spring couplet in the market.
貼窗花和“福”字 Pasting Paper-cuts and "Up-sided Fu”
英語新年手抄報(bào)圖1
Paper-cuts， usually with auspicious patterns， give a happy and prosperous atmosphere of the Festival and express the good wishes of Chinese people looking forward to a good life. In addition to pasting paper-cuts on windows， it is common for Chinese to paste the character "fu(福)”， big and small， on walls， doors and doorposts around the houses. "Fu(福)” shows people’s yearning toward a good life. Some people even invert the character "fu(福)” to signify that blessing has arrived because "inverted” is a homonym for "arrive” in Chinese. Now many kinds of paper-cuts and "fu(福)” can be seen in the market before the Festival.
守歲 Staying Up Late on New Year‘s Eve
The tradition of staying up late to see New Year in originated from an interesting folk tale. In ancient China there lived a monster named Year， who was very ferocious. Year always went out from its burrow on New Year’s Eve to devour people. Therefore， on every New Year’s Eve， every household would have supper together. After dinner， no one dared go to sleep and all the family members would sit together， chatting and emboldening each other. Gradually the habit of staying up late on New Year’s Eve is formed. Thus in China， "celebrating the Spring Festival” is also called "passing over the year (guo nian)”。 However， now there are less and less people in cities who will stay up late to see New Year in.
貼年畫 Pasting New Year Prints
The custom of pasting New Year Prints originated from the tradition of placing Door Gods on the external doors of houses. With the creation of board carvings， New Year paintings cover a wide range of subjects. The most famous ones are Door Gods， Surplus Year after Year， Three Gods of Blessing， Salary and Longevity， An Abundant Harvest of Crops， Thriving Domestic Animals and Celebrating Spring. Four producing areas of New Year Print are Tɑohuɑwu of Suzhou， Yɑngliuqing of Tianjin， Wuqiɑng of Hebei and Weifang of Shangdong. Now the tradition of pasting New Year paintings is still kept in rural China， while it is seldom followed in cities.
英語新年手抄報(bào)圖2
《元宵燈節(jié)源于何時(shí)?》
農(nóng)歷正月十五夜，是我國民間傳統(tǒng)的慶典元宵節(jié)，俗稱又叫“燈節(jié)”。舊習(xí)元宵之夜，城里鄉(xiāng)間，到處張燈結(jié)彩，觀花燈，猜燈謎，盛況空前。屆時(shí)，不論皇室貴戚，平民百姓，深閨淑女，均可破常規(guī)，順習(xí)俗。制燈玩賞，出游嬉鬧。唐詩人崔液作詩道：“玉漏銀壺且莫催，鐵關(guān)金鎖徹明開;誰家見月能閑坐，何處聞燈不看來?”平時(shí)足不涉戶的閨閣女子，往往乘此機(jī)會(huì)與意中人談情相會(huì)。宋辛棄疾《元夕》詞云：“東風(fēng)夜放花千樹，更吹落，星如雨。寶馬雕車香滿路。鳳簫聲動(dòng)，玉壺光轉(zhuǎn)，一夜魚龍舞。蛾兒雪柳黃金縷，笑語盈盈暗香去。眾里尋他千百度。驀然回首，那人卻在，燈火闌珊處。”形象生動(dòng)地展現(xiàn)了元宵燈會(huì)狂歡之夜，情人急于綱會(huì)，望眼欲穿，“踏破鐵鞋無覓處”，見時(shí)就在眼前的有趣場景。
唐宋明清，元宵燈了成了年節(jié)中重要的民眾娛樂活動(dòng)。墨客騷人，常常吟詩作畫，作為增添雅興。今天，元宵放燈、觀燈，仍是中國廣大地區(qū)人民喜聞樂見的民俗娛樂活動(dòng)。特別是近幾年，出現(xiàn)了空前繁榮的景象。人們喜歡元宵燈節(jié)，可它究竟是什么時(shí)候起源的呢?
一種意見認(rèn)為元宵燈節(jié)形成了唐代�！镀咝揞惛濉吩疲�“元宵放燈，起唐開元之間，……從十四至十六夜，后增至五夜。”林達(dá)祖的看法與《七修類稿》稍有不同。他在《唐宋時(shí)代元宵看燈的盛況》一文中根據(jù)《舊唐書》有關(guān)睿宗的記載：“景龍四年，上元夜帝與皇后微行看燈，因幸中書令蕭至忠之第。至丁卯夜又微行看燈。”認(rèn)為“元宵燈節(jié)在明皇的父親睿宗朝代已盛行了”。
英語新年手抄報(bào)圖3
另一種意見認(rèn)為元宵燈節(jié)是漢代傳下來的。唐代徐堅(jiān)《初學(xué)記》云：“《史記·樂書》曰漢家祀太一，以昏時(shí)祠到明。今人正月望日夜游觀燈是其遺事。”《初學(xué)記》是受命于唐玄宗，為太子們學(xué)習(xí)文化而編纂的書籍。書中“令人正月望日夜游觀燈”顯然是指玄宗時(shí)代。《燈節(jié)小史》作者觀今從《御覽》引《史記·樂書》的說法，又據(jù)《曲洧舊聞》所載“唐沿漢武帝祠太乙自昏至明故事”，認(rèn)為元宵燈節(jié)“看來是成于漢初的一種特殊事體，并不認(rèn)為是一種娛樂”。羅啟榮、歐仁煊在1983年9月出版的《中國年節(jié)》中認(rèn)為：“漢文帝是周勃勘平‘諸呂之亂’以后上臺(tái)的�？逼街帐钦率濉Ｃ糠赀@天夜晚，漢文帝都要出宮游玩，‘與民同樂’。‘夜’在古語中又叫‘宵’，于是，漢文帝就把正月十五這一天定為元宵節(jié)。不過，當(dāng)時(shí)還沒有放燈習(xí)俗。到了漢明帝永平十年(公元67年)，蔡愔從印度求得了佛法，漢明帝為了提倡佛教，敕令在元宵節(jié)點(diǎn)燈，以表示對(duì)佛教的尊敬。這是元宵節(jié)放燈的起源。”
還有一種意見認(rèn)為元宵節(jié)源于釋道的宗教活動(dòng)�！赌P經(jīng)》曰：“如來 維訖，收舍利罌置金床上，天人散花奏樂，繞城步步燃燈十二里。”又《西域記》曰：摩喝陁國，正月十五日，僧徒俗眾云集，觀佛舍利放光雨花。而《歲時(shí)雜記》記載說，這是沿道教的陳規(guī)。道教把正月十五燈節(jié)稱為“上元節(jié)“。最近出現(xiàn)一種新說法據(jù)1985年第1期《民間文學(xué)論壇》所載的《燈節(jié)的起源與發(fā)展》一文認(rèn)為，元宵燈節(jié)“最早起源于對(duì)火的崇拜”，“原始人發(fā)明了火之后”，“認(rèn)為神秘的火能驅(qū)趕走一切妖魔鬼怪”。相沿成習(xí)，最先形成儀式活動(dòng)的，便是“儺”，“儺”是一種持火驅(qū)鬼的習(xí)俗活動(dòng)，其“原始形態(tài)，可追溯至久遠(yuǎn)的上古時(shí)代”。
關(guān)于燈節(jié)的起源，民間傳說更是紛紜不一。有的傳說，隋煬帝色迷心竅，欲娶自己的妹妹。妹妹硬扭不過，借托除非正月十五出現(xiàn)繁星滿地的奇跡，才可成婚。隋煬帝下令京城四周百姓到十五日晚每戶燃燈火，違令者斬。至十五日晚，妹妹登樓見滿地都是燈火，誤以為真是繁星落地，縱身投河自戕。為了紀(jì)念這位不甘凌辱的女子，民間百姓每逢正月十五都燃起了燈火。有的傳說，燈節(jié)源于漢武帝。當(dāng)時(shí)宮女元宵正月過后想念家中父母，宮深禁嚴(yán)，怎么外出相會(huì)呢?足智多謀的東方朔得知后很同情，便設(shè)計(jì)成全她們，他先散布謠言，說火神君將派員火燒長安城，城里宮內(nèi)一片恐慌。后又向武帝獻(xiàn)計(jì)，十五晚上宮廷內(nèi)人員一律外出避災(zāi)，滿城大街小巷，庭院屋門，都掛上紅燈，好像滿城大火，以騙過天上觀望監(jiān)視的火神。武帝允諾，宮女們?cè)斐脵C(jī)與家人相會(huì)。從此，每逢正月十五都要放燈。還有的傳說，元宵燈會(huì)源于民間的“放哨火”等農(nóng)事習(xí)慣。每年正月十五左右，春耕即將來臨，各地農(nóng)民忙于備耕等工作。一些地區(qū)的農(nóng)民就在這天晚上到地里把枯枝雜草攏在一起，放火燒掉，以除蟲害。