|
英语六级考试网祝大家元旦快乐!
|
 |
|
|
Yuandan is the first day of the lunar calendar. It is the day when the earth has circled the sun for one round and is beginning another circling. It represents a new beginning when people send off the old days and welcome the new ones. As the first day of the year, Yuandan has been considered to be the most important festival since the ancient times.
Customs
1. Kaisui(beginning of the year): According to the Chinese traditional custom, starting from haishi(9p.m. to 11p.m.)of the last evening of the twelfth lunar month, each family must prepare offering s to deities at the altar. At the same time, they too prepare food for the New Year day: The whole family will then stay awake together to attend to the year(called shou sui). After haishi, zishi(11p.m. to 1a.m.)will come, and this is the arrival of New Year(Yuandan). At this moment, people begin the celebration with fireworks. Vegetarian and sweet foods will then be placed are the altar for offerings, and incense be burned to welcome the deities. In the ancient times, it was believed that haishi connected the two years and thus was called kaisui.
At the same night, some families will follow the instruction in Tongshu and place preparing altar in the direction of the "fortune deity" during the "fortune time" to receive the deity. If the direction of the "fortune deity" is at the "ill position", people will choose to receive "happy deity" or "noble deity" instead.
2. There is an apparent difference in the custom of food taking on Yuandan between the Chinese in the northern and southern regions. The northern Chinese has the habit of taking jiao zi(dumpling made of flour with vegetable and meat wrapped inside). Some people may put a sweet or a coin inside jiao zi, hoping to have a sweet year after tasting the sweet and a wealthy year after tasting the coin. on the other hand, the southern Chinese have the taboo for killing on Yuandan. Therefore, they do not take meat in tee morning of Yuandan, so as to avoid bloodshed or mutual slaughter. In order to evade misfortune, they have the first meal of this day without meat. Instead, they take vegetarian food for the sake of virtue.
3. What is special during the New Year is that parents or elders will distribute red packets(ang pao or ya sui qian)to the children. People in the ancient times were more particular in giving away the red packets: the distribution took place on the eve of New Year so that the kids could suppress the past year and enter the New Year. Ya sui has the meaning of overcoming the unpredictable future. Representing the wishes for the healthy psychological growth of the children, ya sui qian symbolises the elders' hope to see their children overcome all the unpredictable elements brought by the "year".
4. There is an extraordinary number of taboos on Yuandan. Each place has its own customs of taboo. Here, we will mention only a few common taboos in Fujian Province, Guangdong Province and Southeast Asia:
In the past, people commonly believed that fortune was hidden in the house. So, w\sweeping of floor must be done in the direction moving inwards, and there was no clearance of rubbish at night. Particularly on the New Tear day, in order to keep fortune from flowing out, there was no sweeping. Some families kept this taboo until the fifth or even the fifteenth day. If anything was broken, the pieces were wrapped up in order not to let the fortune slip away and were disposed only the fifth day.
Yuandan(in more serious families, the period extends from the 1st to the 15th day) marks the new beginning. In the hope that New Year brings good beginning, people should utter neither unkind words nor vulgar language. Making noises, fighting, quarreling and especially weeping are avoided to deter misfortune. There are even taboos of taking medicine and having sneeze, for it is believed that they can lead to sickness throughout the year. Taboos of the past also concerned the use of knife and the breaking of things. If a thing was broken, the word "break" or any other word importing similar meaning was not used. Instead, words like "failing to the floor and blossoming like flowers" which delivered pleasant senses were used to suggest good connections.
On Yuandan, neither lending and nor giving of money to others is done so that there will be no out-flowing of money during the year. There is also the saying that if a male sleeps in the afternoon, his career will breakdown, and if a female has an afternoon nap, the kitchen will collapse.
5. Ancient rite: In the past, there was a rite called he zheng(proper greeting)during New Year. When a person paid a New Year visit to friends or relatives, he took along a piece of paper or card on which the name of the host was written wit Chinese brush. The receiver of this greeting card would normally paste it on the wall of his main hall to show his respect to and appreciation for the visitor. The quantity of greeting card received reflected the person's public relationship with others, while the names and status of the people who gave the greeting cards indicated the host's boundary of social network and standard of living. Nowadays, because of easy communication, convenient transportation system and wider social network, when people send their greetings they tend to follow the Western style. The greeting is now done by mail and even by email. Today, he zheng is done by simply bringing along red packets and food presents when making a visit.
To be in line with the custom of to giving away money on the first day, families in some places do not pay New Year call to others. Instead, the whole family simply goes out to enjoy themselves or stayed at home for family happiness.
6. In the past, there was a superstition that when a person left his house in the New Year, he must take the correct first step. A particular person would look for the fortunate direction in accordance with the day, month and year of this birth basing on the explanation of Chinese calendar. On Yuan Dan, when a person stepped out of his house, he must go in the fortunate direction and avoid the unfortunate direction. Even people of less particularity also consulted Chinese calendar to find out where the fortunate directions and fierce deities were before the first step out of their houses.
Meaning
From the above mentioned customs, we can see that there are especially many taboos during Chinese New Year. On Yuan Dan in particular, there are more taboos on speech and behaviour than those on other ordinary days. Similarly, there are more activities in pursuit of good cause than usual. On probing the activities and taboos, we have no difficulty to understand that the theme behind is always related to fortune, wealth and goodness, and that people usually concern themselves with a good beginning for the year.
Some taboos may look superstitious on the surface, but they do produce efficacy. If we practise them circumspectively, they will yield practical results. For example, the prohibition of bad words, quarrel, weeping and crying, together with the emphasis on thinking positively even when things are broken, provide some normative rules for people to follow. This gives people the opportunity to mend their ways, to develop good attitudes, and to form a habit of thinking positively and looking at the good side of things. The prohibition of sweeping and disposing the rubbish in the first five days forces people to arrange their things and clear away the rubbish properly at the end of each year, so that no unwanted things will be carried forward to the new year. At the same time, the taboo also compels people to learn to be thrifty. This is because to prevent accumulated things from becoming rubbish, people must be careful in the use of any paper or other things, and thus avoid waste of things.
The avoidance of medicine and sneeze on the first day looks like a joke and is absurd as far as the patient is concerned. However, because of the taboos, people will be conscious enough to take serious care of their health during the windy and snowing season. Thus, they will avoid falling sick in the New Year and wasting away the precious spring hours.
Nowadays, people have abandoned the custom of bringing along greeting cards when they go for New Year house visits. However, Chinese Malaysians still maintain the habit of sending New Year greeting cards by post before the New Year.
There are even non-Chinese sending New Year greeting cared in English or Malay languages to their Chinese friends. Moreover, the Chinese like to use colourful New Year cared to decorate their houses, so as to strengthen the New Year atmosphere. Like the ancient days' greeting cards for he zheng which were displayed in the main  New Year cards also reflect the social position of the persons who receive the cards. Thus, in the way, the ancient rite of he zheng has developed in Malaysia with a Malaysian colour.
西方元旦由来
西元前46年，古罗马凯撒把这一天定为西历新年的开始，为了祝福Janus，这位罗马神话中的门神，Janus后来也演化为英文一月January这个词。原本以为教皇把耶稣诞生年作为西元元年，西元一月一日也和耶稣有 非如此。可能依照西方普遍信仰基督教，还应该是12月25日耶诞日为过年，所以西方的新年没有耶诞隆重。
埃及元旦的由来
大约在公元前五万年左右，古埃及人已由游牧改为农耕，定居在尼罗河两岸，他们的农业收成与尼罗河是否发生洪水有很大关系。古埃及人从长期的观察中发现，尼罗河泛滥的时间是有规律的，他们就把这个时间每次都记录在竹竿上，从中得知两次泛滥时间之间大约相隔365天；同时还发现，当尼罗河初涨的潮头来到今天开罗城附近的时候，也正好是太阳与天狼星同时从地平线上升起的时候。于是，古埃及人便把这一天定为一年的开始。这是"元旦"最早的由来。
元旦是庆贺新年的开始，欢度元旦可说是世界各国各地区的普遍习俗。
现在，世界上大多数国家把每年1月1日作为元旦，由于世界各国所处的经度位置不同，各国的时间也不同，因此，“元旦”的日期也有不同。如大洋洲的岛国汤加位于日界线的西侧，它是世界上最先开始新的一天的地方，也是最先庆祝元旦的国家。而位于日界线东侧的西萨摩亚则是世界上最迟开始新的一天的地方。
阿富汗把春分作为元旦；犹太人把秋分作为元旦；而寒带的爱斯基摩人的元旦是不固定的，他们把第一次下雨作为元旦。公元前46年，罗马皇帝儒略·凯撒制定儒略历，开始时他把冬至作为元旦。但是，人们坚持要把朔日作为元旦，因此就把元旦延到冬至后10天。
按公历计，我国是世界上第12个开始新年的国家。各个国家由于其历史、文化、宗教信仰、民族习惯不同，也都有自己不同的庆祝。不过，这也使得这个世界多姿多彩，更显地域、民族特色了。
现在，世界上大多数国家把每年1月1日作为元旦，由于世界各国所处的经度位置不同，各国的时间也不同，因此，“元旦”的日期也有不同。如大洋洲的岛国汤加位于日界线的西侧，它是世界上最先开始新的一天的地方，也是最先庆祝元旦的国家。而位于日界线东侧的西萨摩亚则是世界上最迟开始新的一天的地方。
阿富汗把春分作为元旦；犹太人把秋分作为元旦；而寒带的爱斯基摩人的元旦是不固定的，他们把第一次下雨作为元旦。公元前46年，罗马皇帝儒略·凯撒制定儒略历，开始时他把冬至作为元旦。但是，人们坚持要把朔日作为元旦，因此就把元旦延到冬至后10天。
按公历计，我国是世界上第12个开始新年的国家。各个国家由于其历史、文化、宗教信仰、民族习惯不同，也都有自己不同的庆祝。不过，这也使得这个世界多姿多彩，更显地域、民族特色了。
|
|
