中国传统节日英文介绍

1、中国传统节日英文介绍Chin ese New Year is the most importa nt of the traditi onal Chin ese holidays. In Chin a, it is known as Spri ngFestival, the literal tran slatio n of the Chin ese n ame 春节,since the spri ng seas on in Chinese calendar starts withlichun, the first solar term in a Chinese calendar year. It

2、 marks the end of the win ter seas on, an alogous to theWestern Carni val. The festival beg ins on the first day of the first month （ 正月）in the traditional Chinese calendarand ends with Lantern Festival which is on the 15th day. Chinese New Years Eve, a day where Chinese familiesgather for their ann

3、ual reunion dinner, is known as Chtx1（除夕） or Eve of the Passing Year. Because the Chinesecalendar is lunisolar, the Chinese New Year is often referred to as the Lunar New Year.Chinese New Year is the Iongest and most important festivity in the Chinese calendar. The origin of Chinese NewYear is itsel

4、f centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and traditions. Chinese New Year iscelebrated in countries and territories with significant Chinese populati ons, such as Mainland China, Hong Kong,Macau, Taiwa n, Sin gapore, Thaila nd, Indon esia, Malaysia, Mauritius, Philipp in es, V

5、iet nam, and also in Chinatow ns elsewhere. Chin ese New Year is con sidered a major holiday for the Chin ese and has had in flue nce onthe lunar new year celebrati ons of its geographic n eighbors.With in China, regi onal customs and traditi ons concerning the celebrati on of the Chin ese new year

6、vary widely.People will pour out their money to buy presents, decoration, material, food, and clothing. It is also traditional forevery family to thoroughly cleanse the house, in order to sweep away any ill -fortune and to make way for goodincoming luck. Windows and doors will be decorated with red

7、colour paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes ofgood fortune or happ in ess, wealth, and Ion gevity. On the Eve of Chin ese New Year, supper is a feast withfamilies. Food will in clude such items as pigs, ducks, chicke n and sweet delicacies. The family will end the nightwith firecrackers. Earl

8、y the next morning, children will greet their parents by wishing them a healthy and happy newyear, and receive money in red paper envelopes. The Chinese New Year tradition is to reconcile, forget all grudgesand sincerely wish peace and happ in ess for every one.Although the Chin ese cale ndar tradit

9、i on ally does not use con ti nu ously nu mbered years, outside China its yearsare often numbered from the reign of the Yellow Emperor. But at least three differe nt years nu mbered 1 are nowused by various scholars, making the year begi nning in AD 2012 the Chinese Year 4710, 4709, or 4649。The Lant

10、ern Festival （元宵节） is a festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunisolar year inthe Chinese calendar, the last day of the lunisolar Chinese New Year celebrati on. It is not to be con fused with theMid -Autu mn Festival, which is sometimes also known as the Lantern Festiva

11、l in locations such as Singapore andMalaysia. During the Lantern Festival, children go out at night to temples carrying paper lanterns and solve riddleson the lanterns （猜灯谜）.It officially ends the Chinese New Year celebrations.In ancient times, the lanterns were fairly simple, for only the emperor a

12、nd noblemen had large ornate ones; inmodern times, lanterns have been embellished with many complex desig ns. For example, la nterns are now ofte nmade in shapes of ani mals.The first month of the Chin ese cale ndar is called yua n mon th, and in ancient times people called ni ght xiao;therefore, th

13、e day is called Yua n Xiao Festival in main la nd China and Taiwa n. The fifteenth day is the first nightone can see a full moon in that lunar year. According to Chinese traditi on, at the very beg inning of a new year, when there is a bright full moon hanging in the sky, there should be thousa nds

14、of colorful la nterns hung out for peopleto appreciate. At this time, people will try to solve puzzles on lanterns, eat yuanxiao (元宵)(a glutinous rice ball, alsoknown as simplified Chinese: 汤圆)and enjoy a family reunion.Qingming Festival(清明节)is when Chinese people visit the columbaria, graves or bur

15、ial grounds to pray to their ancestors.The Qingming Festival is an opport un ity for celebra nts to remember and honour their an cestors at grave sites.Young and old pray before the ancestors, sweep the tombs and offer food, tea, wine, chopsticks, joss paper, and/orlibations to the ancestors. The ri

16、tes have a long tradition in Asia, especially among farmers. Some people carrywillow branches with them on Qingming or put willow branches on their gates and/or front doors. They believe thatwillow branches help ward off the evil spirit that wan ders on Qingming.On Qingming, people go on family outi

17、ngs, start the spring plowing, sing, and dance. Qingming is also a time whe nyoung couples traditi on ally start court ing. Ano ther popular thing to do is to fly kites in the shapes of ani mals orcharacters from Chin ese opera. Ano ther com mon practice is to carry flowers in stead of burning paper

18、, i ncen se,or firecrackers.Colored papers placed on a grave during Qingming Festival, Bukit Brown Cemetery, Singapore Despite havi ng noofficial status, the overseas Chin ese com mun ities in Southeast Asia n n ati ons, such as those in Singapore andMalaysia, take this festival seriously and observ

19、e its traditions faithfully. Some Qingming rituals and ancestralveneration decorum observed by the oversea Chin ese in Malaysia and Sin gapore can be dated back to Ming andQing dyn asties, as the oversea communities were not affected by the Cultural Revolution in Mainland China.Qingming in Malaysia

20、is an elaborate family function or a clan feast (usually orga ni zed by the respective cla nassociation) to commemorate and honour recently deceased relatives at their grave sites and dista nt an cestorsfrom China at home altars, clan temples or makeshift altars in Buddhist or Taoist temples. For th

21、e oversea Chin esecom muni ty, the Qi ngmi ng festival is very much a family celebrati on and, at the same time, a family obligati on.They see this festival as a time of reflect ion and to honour and give thanks to their forefathers. Overseas Chinesenormally visit the graves of their recently deceas

22、ed relatives on the nearest weekend to the actual date. Accordingto the ancient custom, grave site veneration is only feasible ten days before and after the Qingming Festival. If thevisit is not on the actual date, no rmally ven eratio n before Qingming is en couraged. The Qingming Festival inMalays

23、ia and Singapore normally starts early in the morning by paying respect to distant ancestors from China athome altars. This is followed by visiting the graves of close relatives in the country. Some follow the concept of filialpiety to the extent of visiting the graves of their an cestors in mainlan

24、d China. Traditi on ally, the family will burn spiritmoney and paper replicas of material goods such as cars, homes, phones and paper servants. In Chinese culture,it is believed that people still need all of those things in the afterlife. Then family members take turns to kowtow threeto nine times (

25、depe nding on the family adhere nee to traditional values) before the tomb of the ancestors. TheKowtowing ritual in front of the grave is performed in the order of patriarchal seni ority with in the family. After the ancestor worship at the grave site, the whole family or the whole clan feast on the

26、 food and drink they brought for theworship either at the site or in n earby garde ns in the memorial park, sig nifying family reunion with the ancestors.Another ritual related to the festival is the cockfight, as well as being available within that historic and cultural context at Kaife ng Mille nn

27、 ium City Park (Qi ngmi ng Riverside Lan dscape Garde n).The Mid-Autu mn Festival（Ch in ese:中秋节）,also known as the Moon Festival or Moon cake Festival or ZhongqiuFestival, is a popular lunar harvest festival celebrated by Chinese and Vietnamese people.1 A description of thefestival first appeared in

28、 Rites of Zhou, a written collection of rituals of the Western Zhou Dynasty from 3,000 yearsago.1 The celebration became popular during the early Tang Dynasty.1 The festival is held on the 15th day of theeighth mon th in the Chin ese cale ndar, which is in September or early October in the Gregoria

29、n calendar, close tothe autumnal equinoxx.1 The Government of the Peoples Republic of China listed the festival as an intangiblecultural heritage in 2006, and it was made a Chinese public holiday in 2008.It is also a Taiwa nese public holiday.The Mid -Autumn Festival is one of the few most important

30、 holidays in the Chinese calendar, the others beingSpring Festival and Win ter Solstice. Accompa nying the celebrati on, there are additi onal cultural or regi onalcustoms, such as: eat ing moon cakes, matchmak ing. In some parts of China, dances are held for young men andwomen to find partners. One

31、 by one, young wome n are en couraged to throw their han dkerchiefs to the crowd.The young man who catches and retur ns the han dkerchief has a cha nee of roma nee.Carrying brightly lit lanterns, lighting lanterns on towers, floating sky lanterns.Burning incense in reverence to deities in clud ing C

32、han geFire Drag on Dan ces.Moon rabbit is a traditi onal icon.The Chinese calendar（中国农历）is a lunisolar calendar, incorporating elements of a lunar calendar with those ofa solar calendar. It is not exclusive to China, but followed by many other Asian cultures as well.1 In most of EastAsia today, the

33、Gregorian calendar is used for day -to-day activities, but the Chin ese cale ndar is still used formarking traditi onal East Asia n holidays such as the Chinese New Year （the Spring Festival -春节）,the Duan Wufestival, and the Mid-AutumnFestival, and in astrology, such as choosing the most auspicious

34、date for a wedding or the opening of a building.Because each month follows one cycle of the moon, it is also used to determ ine the phases of the moon.In China, the traditional calendar is known as the agricultural calendar while the Gregorian calendar is known asthe common calendar. Another name fo

35、r the Chinese calendar is the Yin Calendar in reference to the lunaraspect of the calendar, whereas the Gregorian calendar is the Yang Calendar in reference to its solar properties.The Chinese calendar was also called the old calendar after the new calendar, i.e., the Gregorian calendar, wasadopted

36、as the official cale ndar. For more tha n two thousa nd years, since the time of Emperor Wu of Han themonth containing the winter solstice has almost always been the 11th month. （This means the new year starts onthe sec ond new moon after the win ter solstice uni ess there is an 11th or 12th in terc

37、alary mon th, in which case itstarts on the third new moon.） A cale ndar using this new year is often referred to as the Xia Calendar, followinga comment in the Shiji which states that un der the Xia Dyn asty, the year bega n on the sec ond new moon after thewin ter solstice. At times un der some ot

38、her dyn asties in ancient China, the month with the win ter solstice was the12th or the 1st mon th.Duanwu Festival （端午节） ,also known as Dragon Boat Festival and the Double Fifth, is a traditional and statutoryholiday originating in China and associated with a number of East Asian and Southeast Asian

39、 societies. In Mandarin,it is known by the name Du mwuJi e. In 2008, it was recognised as a public holiday in mainland China for the firsttime since the 1940s. The festival has also long bee n celebrated in Taiwa n, Sin gapore, and Malaysia. Equivale ntand related festivals in Asia include the Kodom

40、o no hi in Japan, Dano in Korea, and T?t ?oan Ng? in Vietnam.The festival occurs on the 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar cale ndar on which the Chin ese cale ndar is based.This is the source of the alter native n ame of Double Fifth. The focus of the celebrations includes eating the ricedumplin

41、g zongzi (Chinese:粽子;pinyin: zmgzi), drinking realgar wine xionghuangjiu (雄黄酒),and racing dragonboats.Like all other traditional festivals, Duanwu is reckoned in accordanee with the lunar calendar con sisti ng of 29 or 30days. For this reas on, Duanwuthe fifth day of the fifth moon, ordoublefifth dr

42、ifts from year to year on the Gregoria n (solar) cale ndar.The moon is con sidered to be at its stro ngest around the time of summer solstice (mid -summer in traditionalJapan, but beginning of summer elsewhere) when the daylight in the northern hemisphere is the Ion gest. The sun(ya ng), like the dr

43、ago n (lo ng), traditi on ally represe nts masculi ne en ergy, whereas the moon (yue), like the phoenix (or firebird, fen ghua ng), traditi on ally represents feminine energy. Summer solstice is considered the peakannual moment of male en ergy5 while the win ter solstice, the Ion gest ni ght of the year, represe nts the peakannual mome