spring festivel.doc

1. TheDifferent CustomsThere are many differences between Spring Festival and Christmas, which will be analysed from origin, decoration, food and celebration.1.1 Different OriginThe oldest and most important festival in China is the Chinese New Year，the Spring Festival is an event comparable to Christmas in the West, which marks the first day of the lunar calendar and usually falls somewhere between late January and early February of the solar calendar. Like all Chinese traditional festivals, the date of the New Year is determined by the Chinese lunar calendar, which is divided into 12 months. One year has 24 solar terms with the changes of nature, stipulating the proper time for planting and harvesting. The first day of the first solar term is the Beginning of Spring, which cannot always fall on the first day of the year as in the solar calendar. The Spring Festival falls usually around the Beginning of Spring, heralding the beginning of spring; thus it is also known as the Spring Festival (Zhao, 2002). Christmas day, December 25, which celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, the founder of the Christian religion, is the biggest and best-loved holiday in the western countries. According to the Bible, the holy book of Christians, God decided to allow his only son, Jesus Christ, to be born to a human mother and live on earth so that people could understand God better and learn to love God and each other more. Christmas, meaning celebration of Christ, honors the time when Jesus was born to a young Jewish woman Mary. Although the exact date of the birth of Jesus nearly 2,000 years ago is not known, the calendar on the supposed date divides all time into B.C. (before Christ ) and A.D. ( a Latin phrase, anno Domini, “in the year of our lord”) for the first 300 years, Jesus birthday was celebrated on different dates. Finally, in the year 354, church leaders chose December 25 as his birthday (Mao, 2007)2.2 Different DecorationDoors and windows are often given a fresh coat of red paint on Spring Festival. People in China adorn their front doors with Chinese decorations and Spring Couplets to give the feeling of the renewal of life and the return of spring. Spring Couplets are paper squares engraved with blessings and wishes for good fortune, happiness, prosperity, health, wealth and long life. These Chinese couplets have three pieces, two longer ones vertically hung on each side of door, and one shorter one horizontally hung on the top of the door. Paintings of various such themes are also put up to adorn their homes with a festive look. In addition, the Chinese Spring Festival decorations also included to embellish their doors or windows with auspicious Chinese Spring Festival Children Figures, usually one boy and one girl, opposite each other. They both hold lucky signs and are the symbols of Good Luck.Western people decorate their home with evergreens. The winter custom of decorating homes and churches with evergreens began in ancient times. Branches of fir or spruce were thought to bring good luck and guarantee the return of spring. The early Germans believed, for example, that in winter evil spirits killed the plants and trees and caused green leaves and flowers to disappear, which make them fell that they are brought to the spirit of death. Germans of the sixteenth century probably originated the custom of decorating trees. In the nineteenth century, the idea spread throughout Europe and the Untied States. The molder Christmas tree is usually covered with colored balls and strings of colored lights. The star on top represents the star in the east which guided the three Wise Men to Bethlehem (Li, 2003). In ancient times, a branch of mistletoe was hung over doorways for good luck. Today the custom continues, but now it is for fun. A man may kiss any girl he catches standing under the mistletoe. The poinsettia plant is another familiar Christmas decoration; its star-shaped red leaves are an ideal symbol of the holiday. 2.3 Different FoodIn China, on the Eve of Spring Festival, the meal is more luxurious than usual. Dishes such as chicken, fish and bean curd cannot be excluded, for in Chinese, their pronunciations, respectively “ji”, “yu” and “doufu” means auspiciousness, abundance and richness. Apart from these things, people will buy a lot of many other things, such as fruits, candy and vegetables as well. They will store plenty of such things for a long time for convenient eating. People in northern China will eat “jiaozi”, so to speak dumplings. For breakfast, as they think “jaozi” in sound means “bidding farewell to the old and ushering in new”. Also the shape of the dumplings is like gold ingot from ancient China (Erin, 1997: 51). So people eat them and wish for money and treasure, sometimes people will put a small clean coin into one dumpling, once a person eats it out in his bowl, it means a good fortune next year. It is very interesting. Southern Chinese eat “niangao” (New Year cake made of glutinous rice flour) on this occasion, because as a homophone, “niangao”means “higher and higher, one year after anther”.Concerning Christmas western-style food, besides ham, sweet potato, vegetables, raisin pudding, fruitcake, cocktail and so on at the traditional Christmas dinner table, turkey is the essential cuisine. This abundant harvest reunion means thankfulness with the western-style food “Christmas Dinner”, similar to “Thanks giving Dinner”. “Dinner” by no means refers to the supper originally, but should eat at noon. Because Thanksgiving Day is on Thursday of Novembers fourth week every year, which is extremely close to Christmas day of the years great holiday. But Christmas day is precisely grateful to the day which Jesus arrives. Therefore, the customs of eating Turkey are extended to the Christmas day. So Turkey also means the thankfulness to the birth of Jesus2.4 Different CelebrationNew Years Eve and New Years Day are celebrated as a family affair, a time of reunion and thanksgiving. The celebration was traditionally highlighted with a religious ceremony given in honor of Heaven and Earth, the gods of the household and the family ancestors. People attach great importance to Spring Festival Eve (ChuXi). At that time, all family members will get together to have a HUGE dinner (NianYeFan) (Chang and Li, 2006). After the dinner, the whole family will sit together, chatting or watching TV. And almost all Chinese will stay up to see the New Year come. Yasui Money can not be forgotten. It is the money parents and grandparents give to their (grand) sons and (grand) daughters to bless them in the coming year, and it must be given before the new day come. That would be a great deal of money to children.In western countries, there are numerous parties to celebrate the festival, the most beautiful and meaningful aspects of the holiday occur at home and in church. Many families go to church on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. After services, they gather around the tree and open their gifts. Then they sit down to enjoy traditional Christmas dinner. Many people will attend the midnight service on Christmas Eve before returning home to wait for Farther Christmas or Santa Claus to come and leave presents under tree. Before they go to bed, children leave out a glass of milk or coke for him and some carrots for his reindeer (Zhe, 1997).2. The Cultural Connotation of Chinese-western FestivalsTraditional festivals show their own unique cultural connotation between China and western countries. However, through the comparison of Chinese- western festivals we will discover their similar spirit. In addition, cultural connotation also includes the intention of the traditional festivals reflected from spring festival and Christmas, which is worth analyzing. From the following two points, we can understand their culture connotation well.2.1 The Similar Spirit of Spring Festival and Christmas Spring Festival and Christmas Day all belong to grand and busy festivals. From the perspective of the festivals celebrations, it is easy to find there are a lot of similarities, both at the end of a year and in the beginning of the early spring. It is a good time that people summarize the past and look into the future. From different customs of these two festivals, we will find their spiritual purpose is consistent, both advocating reunion, companionship and caring.Spring Festival is the most important festival for the Chinese people and is the day when all family members get together, people in China like family reunion mostly. Just like Christmas in the West, all people living away from home will go back, so Spring Festival becomes the busiest time for transportation systems. At that time, all family members eat dinner together. Whats more, people with mobile phones now make merry during the festival in a new high-tech way. They send greetings via short-text messages. Each mobile phone subscriber on average sent or received approximately 30 messages during last years weeklong festival. This is a new way to express holiday wishes, to tell people you havent forgotten them in this busy life, when you dont always have time to call. People often wont forget to care for old people in their family, helping them to clean up and sending them elegant gifts, all of which is the soul of the festival. Christmas Day, the 25th of December, is the biggest festival celebrated in the Christian countries of the world. People usually take a holiday for two weeks and get together to share Christmas dinner on Christmas Day. Then people will hold various celebration activities or take a trip together after family reunion to enjoy the beautiful natural scenery. Other partys enjoyment at Christmas is that the congratulation card and the presents and so on mutually presented between best friends or family members to bless to them and hope their friendship exist permanently at the period of Christmas day. In addition, People wont forget to care the others, especially the miserable person. For example, in England, people often sent presents wrapped with the white papers to the poor living near their houses. The spirit of Christmas day is caring people, sharing with people and sticking together through thick and thin.Spring Festival and Christmas Day customs reflect the varieties of cultures that celebrate the holiday, but the similarities are also obvious. For most people, gift giving, feasting, and good times are far more prominent. What is more, celebrations in both culture backgrounds enjoy the same harmonious atmosphere of the family reunion. There is one common purpose for peoples activities, that is, to express their pleasure in hearts.3.2 The Aim of the Traditional Festivals Traditional festival is a culture which is created and shared by a whole nation, it is a symbol of a nations trait, and this kind of culture would forge a nations cohesion spontaneously. The festival customs in different countries are established by usage, and peoples life has been becoming interesting and colorful. Every festival has a moving story or a beautiful legend, every festival accumulates deep historical and cultural implication. Traditional festival of a nation is a very complicatedly social-cultural phenomenon, it concludes a nations character, belief, perspective, the way of thought, morality, aesthetics and values, which is the most obvious and typical exhibition of a nations surviving form. It comes into being accompanying humans productive activity, cognitive activity and the development of the social history, which is also under the control of human beings thinking consciousness in different material life and the different historical times, and at the average time, it reflects the development of the peoples material and cultural life in different aspects. The divergences existing in different nations traditional festival are all associated closely with the survival system and the way of living of one nations or a nation which has the same cultural traits which constitute the same cultural system. As a matter of fact, Spring Festival and Christmas are the same.3. The Differences of the Chinese-western CultureSince festival culture is the preciously cultural heritage of a nation，the traditional festivals of that nation are marked with its distinct national features and rich presentation forms. By comparison between Spring Festival and Christmas Day, it can be seen that Chinese and western festivals serve as an intriguing window into their cultural differences. The traditional practices find expressions in the origins and customs of every national festival, which in turn reflect the morality of the whole nation and its people. What traditional festivals of different nations differ goes hand in hand with the existing pattern and ways of living of these nations, which is clearly shown in the following.4.1 TheDifferenceinReligionThe evident difference existing in Chinese and western culture is vivid in religion. The influence of the religion in western countries is quite obvious. People in western countries considered the God of Christian is the creature of the living things. The Christ does not allow people to worship some other gods, it is unnecessary to worship other gods. The lifespan of human being is just a procedure, their good fortune or misfortune, longevity or death, young, poor or rich are all destined and dominated by the God but not get by the hard work. Therefore, the aim of the Christmas is praying for the good fortune from the God. However, the important cultural feature of the Chinese traditional festival is the strong social conventions and pantheism, in other words, non-religious is the point. The reason of such fact is that the social construction of the earlier China was based on the combination of nature-worship and the humanism, which differed from the pantheism of ancient western and the humanism of modern times, it advocated the coordination and the balance between common people and gods, namely, the blending of gods and human being .From the perspective of Chinese people, children are the continuation of the last generation. People place their hope, ideal, feelings on their children in the hope of them fulfilling some of their dream. If the children can not satisfy them or do not want to obey their parents, all of these behaviors are regarded as they show no filial duty. Thus enhancing ancestors spiritual and material heritage is the primary mission to each Chinese person. However in western countries, as the society went into the Christian civilization, there was no such custom and regulations. In the perspective of Christian civilization, everyone is responsible for the God or pleads for the Gods forgiveness or appreciation so that they are allowed to step into paradise, but not responsible for their ancestors.4.2 The Difference in Ethical CultureThe different developing way of eastern and western society leads to the various moral cultures naturally. China is a multinational country with five thousands years history. The historical origins of Chinese traditional culture are mainly based on Confucianism, and meanwhile are blended with the culture of various schools of thinkers. Whereas, the western culture is mainly attached to Christian.The traditional festivals of our country contain rich humanistic spirit and ethical culture. From ancient to modern times, the holiday forms are various and the content is in abundance. It is not only composing the deep cultural background of the Chinese nation, but bearing the genes of Chinese nations cultural origin, which is a preciously spiritual culture heritance.Spring Festival is mainly celebrated by Han nationality in old time, but the spiritual culture heritance also influences other nationalities in China. China is a multinational country, every nation has its own belief. However, the spiritual culture heritance leads to national fusion, which should be contributed to ethical culture. From this point, Spring Festival has great connotation in ethical morality and the main function is the inheriting of ethical morality, and the main function of them is the inheriting of ethical morality. By contrast, some western festivals have strong entertainment factors but less ethical ones, which offer people sufficient opportunity for publicizing the individuality and enjoying entertainment. Therefore it is able to take in more people to take part in. Apart from focusing on the sublimation of the individual spirit, the western traditional festivals also concentrate on the publicizing of the individual personality and emotional demands among the individuals. All of these are easily accepted by ever