中国传统节日的英文介绍和讨论.docx

中国传统节日的英文介绍和讨论I 中国主要传统节日的英文翻译元旦(1月1日)New Years Day 春节(农历一月一日)the Spring Festival 元宵节(农历一月十五日)the Lantern Festival 清明节(4月5日)Ching Ming Festival; Tomb-sweeping Festival 端午节(农历五月初五)the Dragon Boat Festival 中秋节(农历八月十五)Mid-autumn (Moon) Festival 重阳节(农历九月九日)Double-ninth Day 除夕(农历十二月三十日)New Years EveII 新年习俗英译过年 celebrate the spring festival 春联 spring festival couplets 剪纸 paper-cuts年画 new year paintings买年货 do shopping for the Spring Festival ; do Spring Festival shopping敬酒 propose a toast灯笼 lantern 烟花 fireworks爆竹 firecrackers (people scare off evil spirits and ghosts with the loud pop.)红包 red packets 舞龙 dragon dance (to expect good weather and good harvests)舞狮 lion dance (the lion is believed to be able to dispel evil and bring good luck.)戏曲 traditional opera杂耍 variety show 灯谜 riddles written on lanterns灯会 exhibit of lanterns守岁 staying-up 禁忌 taboo拜年 pay new years call; give new years greetings; pay new years visit去晦气 get rid of the ill- fortune祭祖宗 offer sacrifices to ones ancestors压岁钱 gift money; money given to children as a lunar new year gift 旧岁 bid farewell to the old year扫房 spring cleaning; general house-cleaning年糕 nian-gao; rise cake; new year cake 团圆饭 family reunion dinner 年夜饭 the dinner on new years eve 饺子 jiao zi -; chinese meat ravioli ,dumplingsIII XINHUA NEWS AGAENCY REPORTChina to discuss making traditional festivals legal holidays2007-11-07BEIJING, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) - China may increase the number of legal holidays and include some traditional festivals, such as the Tomb-Sweeping Day, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival, as part of the countrys legal holidays, sources said.The Chinese government has formed a preliminary plan on the new legal holiday arrangement and the plan will be released in the near future. After that public opinion will be sought on the Internet.As an ancient country with a civilized history of more than 5,000 years, some traditional festivals represent part of the Chinese nations cultural heritage. However, current legal holiday arrangement only includes the Spring Festival.Cai Jiming, professor with Tsinghua University and member of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said that traditional festivals as legal holiday would help reserve the folk customs.The nations traditional culture will find its way to develop, Cai said.Feng Jicai, a renowned Chinese writer who upholds folk customs, said the cultural meaning of Chinese traditional festivals should be restored and emphasized, especially with increasing globalization.Chinese people currently have ten days of legal holiday. Nine days are for May Day, the National Day and the Spring Festival, with three days for each, and one day for New Years Day.However, the weekends on one side of the first three holidays are designated as two working days, and people enjoy two days off on the working days, which makes the holiday a consecutive seven days. Millions of Chinese travel during the holidays, so earning them the name golden weeks.Regarded as one of the most important days on the Chinese calendar, the Tomb-Sweeping Day, or Qingming festival, which usually occurs on April 4 or 5 each year, was established by a Chinese emperor in memory of a loyal official who sacrificed himself to save the emperors life more than 2,500 years ago.The day gradually became a traditional occasion for paying homage to ancestors and departed family members.The Dragon Boat Festival has been celebrated for thousands of years to commemorate Qu Yuan, a great Chinese patriotic poet, who lived in the state of Chu during the Warring States period (475 B.C. to 221 B.C.). He drowned himself in the Miluo River in todays Hunan Province in 278 B.C., on fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, hoping his death would alert the king to revitalize the kingdom.The tradition arose that on the day of his death dragon boat races would be held and people should eat zongzi, glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves.The Mid-Autumn festival, which falls on the 15th day of the eighth month on the lunar calendar, is considered an occasion for reunion of family members and loved ones. On the occasion, they would eat moon cakes, light lanterns while enjoying the full moon - an auspicious symbol of abundance, harmony and luck.The festival was flavored by the legend of Change, a lonely fairy on the moon. According to the legend, she was the beautiful wife of Hou Yi, a hero who shot down nine suns scorching the earth but was slain by his apprentice Feng Meng. Threatened by the murderer, Change drank an elixir and flew to the moon.China introduced the Golden week holidays in 1999, in a bid to boost domestic consumption.It was reported that tourism revenue has increased from 14.1 billion yuan (1.76 billion U.S. dollars) during the National Day holiday in 1999 to 64.2 billion yuan during the Golden week this October.Statistics also showed that the year 2001 alone saw tourist numbers reach 780 million, much higher than the figure of 240 million in 1989. While Chinas outbound tourists rose to 12.13 million in 2001, a big jump from 3 million in the early 1990s.But after several years experience, complaints about overcrowding, poor service, a scarcity of hotel rooms, and damage to scenic spots, especially historic sites, during the Golden Week holidays have spurred debate over the merits of the week-long holiday concept.Last year, Cai Jiming proposed shortening the National Day and May Day holidays from three days to one day and distributing the days to celebrate four traditional festivals - the Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Day, Tomb-Sweeping Day, and New Years Eve.Other Chinese scholars have also reiterated their belief that the important traditional Chinese festivals should be made public holidays.The current holiday system does not accord with the long-standing customs of Chinese people, said Liu Quili, President of the Chinese Folklore Society.Huang Tao, an associate professor of the Peoples University of China, said the most effective measures to protect cultural festivals were to make the traditional festivals legal holidays to enable more people to understand the importance of tradition.IV 中国传统节日的整体介绍Traditional Chinese FestivalsBoasting rich cultural meaning and a long history, traditional Chinese festivals compose an important and brilliant part of Chinese culture.The formation of traditional festivals is a long process of historical and cultural accumulation in a nation or a state. Festival customs passed down to today still show signs of ethnic group struggles. Festival activities always reflect primitive sacrifice, superstitious taboo and earthly life, peoples spirit and religious influence. Sometimes historical figures become the focus of a festival, showing peoples commemoration for them and endowing some historical sense to it.Moreover, traditional Chinese festivals were often connected with ancient astronomy, calendars and mathematics. Jieqi, or the 24 seasonal division points, is a key factor in forming traditional festivals. According to the traditional Chinese calendar, a year is divided into 24 points, which can accurately show seasonal changes and acts as a basic guidance system for agricultural production. The 24 seasonal division points came into being in the Warring States Period (475 BC-221 BC).Most traditional festivals took shape during the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC), the first unified and power-centralized dynasty of China. By the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), China had experienced a great development period and major tradition