元旦的英語介紹

元旦的英語介紹

元旦的英語介紹

元旦，即公歷的1月1日，是世界多數國家通稱的“新年”。元，

謂“始”，凡數之始稱為“元”；旦，謂“日”；“元旦”即“初始

之日”的.意思。下面跟著店鋪來看看元旦的英語介紹吧！希望對你有

所幫助。

【元旦簡介】

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 reprents a new beginning when people nd 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 Chine

traditional custom, starting from to )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, )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 incen 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 choo to receive "happy deity" or "noble deity" instead.

2. There is an apparent difference in the custom of food

taking on Yuandan between the Chine in the northern and

southern regions. The northern Chine 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 Chine 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. Reprenting the wishes for the healthy psychological

growth of the children, ya sui qian symbolis the elders hope to

e 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 hou. So, wsweeping 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 dispod

only the fifth day.

Yuandan(in more rious 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 nois,

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 u of knife and the

breaking of things. If a thing was broken, the word "break" or any

other word importing similar meaning was not ud. Instead,

words like "failing to the floor and blossoming like flowers" which

delivered pleasant ns were ud 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 collap.

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

Chine 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 persons

public relationship with others, while the names and status of the

people who gave the greeting cards indicated the hosts

boundary of social network and standard of living. Nowadays,

becau of easy communication, convenient transportation

system and wider social network, when people nd 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

prents 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

themlves or stayed at home for family happiness.

6. In the past, there was a superstition that when a person

left his hou 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 Chine calendar.

On Yuan Dan, when a person stepped out of his hou, he

must go in the fortunate direction and avoid the unfortunate

direction. Even people of less particularity also consulted Chine

calendar to find out where the fortunate directions and fierce

deities were before the first step out of their hous.