Festival Culture in America and China

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1 Festival Culture in America and China Author name: Hou Yongli Affiliation: Science and Technology university of Harbin Telephone number:

2 Abstract Guided by the theory on close communication in traditional culture between America and China, this paper gives a bright perspective of the festival culture in communication, and describes the difference, provides the methods of learning and introduces some interesting Chinese festival. This report presents conclusions from the introduction that combing national festival origin with the actual customs, and a survey do in college about foreigner s interests in Chinese festival culture. Finally, the importance of a further learning in festival communication will be found, the number of people who are interested in Chinese festival culture will be increased. Key word: difference in new year ; method of learning; Chinese festival presentation Introduction It is known to all that each traditional festival is a product of the ancient civilization, which is formed from the development of The Times. Gaining a comprehensive understanding of those festivals which we are interested in can help both American and Chinese understand better on foreign traditional culture. While the communication in this part is more and more frequent between America and China, in fact, few know the name or the date for the festival celebration, no to mention that they really understand the origin and the profound meaning behind the festival. It would seem, therefore, the further investigation is needed in the area of the traditional festival culture, in order to make more people especial the foreigners have better

3 understanding for the Chinese festival culture and promote a further communication between them. The primary focus of this paper is to give an example to describe the difference in festival between these two countries. A secondary purpose is to present some useful ways to learn how to effectively understand the festival culture and then introduce some famous and interesting Chinese festival for public. This paper pay more attention to the Chinese festival culture, in other words, the description referring to Chinese culture is more detailed than American, which is in order to be well presented the Chinese festival to American friends. The research is devoted to the field by the detail presentation of the festival in origin and customs, a survey about the foreigner s view of the Chinese festival culture, and the effective information on how to integrate into unfamiliar festival culture. It is hoped that this research will stimulate a continuous communication in traditional culture over these two countries, and inspiring increasing people participate in this communication. The difference between American and Chinese New Year Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival is one of the most important and longest holidays in traditional Chinese festival. It begins on the first day of the first month in Chinese lunar calendar, and ends up on the 15 th. As all American known, Christmas also is the most important celebrations of the year in America. It falls on the twenty-fifth of December, and has the same importance as Chinese New Year to

4 people with English background. As for the origin, Christmas is a Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. While no one knows the exact date when Christ s birth, most people observe Christmas on the 25 th of December. The history of Christmas may date back over 4000 year. Christ is the son of god, he born to help people understand god better and love each other more. Christmas is celebrated to honor him. The Spring Festival can be traced to several millenniums. The most interesting and famous legend for this holiday is a story about the beast named nian, which is a cruel and wild animal in ancient times. The people believe that the beast will come to the village and kill the common people in lunar New Year s Eve night. According to the legend the beast extremely fears red color, flame and a lot of mixed sound. So people begin to put up the red paper in the gate, light the torch all night and set off the firecrackers in order to avoid the beast. From then on, the beast does not come out any more. Nowadays the Spring Festival are mostly celebrated to the reunion for the family and pray for the good life in next year. With the time goes on, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the Spring Festival are varied widely by different nation in China. However, many customs are same in general. They will clean the house before the New Year s Eve and decorate the house with the red lantern and the Spring Festival couplets, sometimes even stick the red paper cuttings on windows, Americans clean the house too, but they decorate the house with holly, mistletoe and Christmas trees. During the New Year s Eve, both of them have a big supper with family. In China,

5 the food includes the fish, chicken, and so on. Americans prefer to roast Turkey. After the eating, Chinese family always gathers together chatting, playing cards or watching Spring Festival Party on CCTV1, children like to set off the long strings of the small fireworks. Until 0 o clock, all the family set off the firecrackers to welcome the coming new year. The whole sky is lighted brightly. In America, when children go to bed that night, the hang up their stockings, and on the Christmas morning, the children are always wake up early to find them full of presents. Of course, it is not due to the coming of Father Christmas. Just their parents fill the stockings. Chinese child also wake up early to greet to their parents by wishing them a healthy body and happy new year. Then receive the money in red paper envelops which named hongbao in China. In the next days it is same to American people, they often visit friends and relatives. For Chinese and American new-year celebration, while the customs are similar in some place, the differences are existed. For example, stockings and hongbao, they stand for the different culture element. Only when we know more about these, can we understand a new culture better. The methods of learning a new festival culture It sounds too difficult for someone to learn a foreign festival culture under different background. According to the research in this field, the most important and basic ways to step to the festival culture is that we need to be rich in knowledge, which including the origin, customs and features about the festival. Besides, refer to the

6 Internet to find some videos and information which are related to the celebrations, in order to feel the atmosphere in advance. Last but not the least, make friends with local people and join in the celebration of a festival what you like with them. It is the most direct way to contact with the new festival culture. The methods given above are most concise for people to learn a foreign festival culture, which combing the theory and practice. They make the process of learning become more interesting. The middle-autumn festival According to the survey done on the international college in Science and Technology of Harbin University, a festival that foreigners are most interesting in is the Middle-Autumn Festival. It is celebrate on the fifteenth of August, the day was also considered as a harvest festival. The origin can be traced back as far as the ancient Xia and Shang dynasty. In the Zhou dynasty people hold ceremonies to greet winter and worship the moon. When the Middle-Autumn Festival sets in, it becomes very prevalent in the Tang dynasty that people enjoy and worship the full moon. In the southern Song dynasty, people send round moon cakes to their relatives as gift in expression of their best wishes of family reunion. Since Qing dynasty, the custom of Middle-Autumn Festival celebration becomes unprecedented popular. The also appear some special customs in different part of the country. Such as burning incense, planting Mid-Autumn trees, lighting lanterns and playing dragon dances. However, these customs are not as popular as it used to be. Nowadays, people gather together to have a supper, drink wine below the moon, the most essential food for this festival is moon cake. The round moon cake, measures about three inches in diameter and one and a half inches in thickness. The cake is made with melon seeds, lotus seeds, almonds, minced meats and so on. Now it forms a wide range of different taste cakes. Nowadays the Middle-Autumn Festival is mostly celebrated for the reunion of the family and the missing about the relatives who do not stay at home in many people s eyes. Drinking the wine and eating moon cakes are the remarkable characters for this festival.

7 Conclusion This article set out to make more people focus on the traditional festival communication between America and China, and attract more American friend s interests on Chinese festival culture. According to the comparing with Christmas and the Spring Festival, present the obvious difference in their celebrations. Then the secondary presentation about the methods of stepping into the traditional festival aims to help people to understand better for a new festival culture. The festival is the more attractive topic for all of us, understanding them better can promote a increasing communication and facilitate a more friendly and harmonious atmosphere between America and China.