英语论文中西方传统节日文化的差异.docx

英语论文中西方传统节日文化的差异.docx

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英语论文中西方传统节日文化的差异

CultureDifferencesofChineseandWesternTraditionalFestival

Abstract

Traditionalfestivalsarethehistoricalproductsofanation’sdevelopment.WhetherinChinawhichhasalonghistoryofmorethanfivethousandyearsorinthenewbornAmerica,theoriginationoftraditionalfestivalsinthetwocountriesissimilar.Mosttraditionalfestivalsoriginatedfrompeople’sexpectationforharvestintheagriculturalproduction,theworshiptowardsthegodsandthenature,sacrificestothehistoricalcharactersandetc.Afterthelong-termevolution,traditionalfestivalshavebecomeanindispensablepartofthenationalculture.Throughtraditionalfestivals,thedistinctculturalcharacteristicsofapeopleandthenationalspiritscanbeobserved.Sincetheancienttime,Chinahasbeenalargeagriculturalcountry,thesmall-scaleeconomicmodeknownas“Themenploughandthewomenweave”initiatedtheagriculturalcivilizationofChinesecharacteristics.ChinesetraditionalfestivalsaredeeplyrootedintheagriculturalcivilizationandgreatlyinfluencedbyConfucianism.Tosomeextent,ChinesetraditionalfestivalshaverelievedfromtheprimitivetaboosandtendedtobehappyfestivalswhichreflecttheconceptofharmonyandintegrationinConfucianism.InAmerica,religionplaysaveryimportantroleinpeople’slife.Withvariousbranches,thereligioussystemofAmericaisquitecomplicated,amongwhichChristianityisofthegreatestimportance.SomeAmericantraditionalfestivalsarethedirectproductsofChristianityandmostfestivalshaveevolvedintothereligiousfestivalslater.Thispaperisdesignedtodiscussthedifferencesincustoms,originsandotheraspectsoftraditionalfestivalswiththesimilarculturalconnotation,thenanalyzethereasonslyingbehindthedifferencesandfinallyreflecttheculturaldifferencesofthetwonations.ThepaperalsoanalyzesthemutualfusionintradtionalholidaysbetweenChinaandthewest.

Keywords:

Traditionalfestivals;ChineseandAmericanculture;culturaldifferences;causes;mutualfusion.

中西方传统节日文化的差异

摘要

传统节日是一个民族发展的历史产物。

无论是在有着五千多年悠长历史的中国还是在新生的美国，传统节日的起源都显示出相通之处，大多数传统节日都源自于人们在农业生产生活中对丰收的期盼、对天地神灵和自然的崇拜、以及对历史人物的祭奠等等。

传统节日在长期的演变和发展中，已经成为民族文化不可或缺的一部分，透过传统节日可以反映一个民族的文化特色和民族精神。

中国自古以来就是一个农业大国，“男耕女织”的小农经济模式开创了具有中国特色的农耕文化。

中国传统节日深深植根于农耕文化之中，在演变过程中深受儒家思想的影响。

从某种程度而言，中国传统节日已经渐渐摆脱原始禁忌和崇拜，演化成为体现儒家和合思想的欢庆祥和的节日。

在美国，宗教的影响和地位是不言而喻的，美国的宗教体系错综复杂，其中最有影响力的宗教派别是基督教。

美国的传统节日大都衍化成为基督教的产物，大多数的美国节日在日后的发展中都成为宗教性的节日。

本文从两国传统节日中有着相似文化内涵的节日出发，探讨这些传统节日在起源、节日习俗等方面的差异，并分析产生这些差异的原因，从而折射出两国传统节日文化的差异。

另外本文也探讨了中西方传统节日的相互融合。

原创英语毕业论文请咨询QQ253771735

关键词：

传统节日；中美文化；差异；根源；相互融合

Contents

1.Introduction

2.DifferencesbetweenChineseandWesternTraditionalFestivals

2.1TheSpringFestivalvs.ThanksgivingDay

2.2TheZhongyuanFestivalvs.Halloween

2.3TheChineseValentine’sDayvs.Valentine’sDay

2.4Summary

3.MajorFactorsCausingDifferencesbetweenChineseandWesternTraditional

Festivals

3.1FactorsInfluencingChineseTraditionalFestivals

3.1.1AgriculturalCivilization

3.1.2Confucianism

3.2MajorFactorsInfluencingWesternTraditionalFestivals

3.2.1Industrialization

3.2.2Christianity

4.MutualFusionBetweenChineseandWesternTraditionalHolidays

4.1ThedevelopmentoftheMutualFusion

4.2ThePerformanceoftheMutualFusion

5.Conclusion

CultureDifferencesofChineseandWesternTraditionalFestivals

1.Introduction

Chinaisamulti-ethnicnation,withtheHannationalityaccountingforthemajorityofthetotalpopulationandvariousethnicminoritiesintheminority（Zhao,2002）.AccordingtoZhao（2002）andTan（2003）,peopleindifferentnationalitiesorregionscelebratesometraditionalfestivalsoftheirown,whileamongallthefestivalsthemosttypicalonescelebratedbyChinesepeopleincommonconsistoftheseones:

theSpringFestival,theLanternFestival,Tomb-SweepingDay,theDragon-BoatFestival,theChineseValentine’sDay,theZhongyuanFestival,Mid-AutumnDay,theDouble-NinthFestival,theWinterSolstice,theLabaFestival,andtheKitchenGodFestival,etc.

DifferentfromChina,Americaisamulti-culturalnationwiththeimmigrantstakingalargeproportionofitspopulationandpeoplefromdifferentcountrieslivetogetherandtheculturesbroughtwiththemmeltintothedistinctAmericanculture（Wu,2003;Hu,2004;William,2007）.InthesystemofAmericantraditionalfestivals,therearefestivalsoriginatinginthehomelandandfestivalsbroughtfromtheforeignlands.ThefestivalsinAmericacanbedividedintothelegalholidaysandtraditionalones;besides,somestatesalsocelebrateafewfestivalsoftheirown（Ellinwood,2005）.Ingeneral,accordingtoSamovaretal.（2008）,themostpopulartraditionalfestivalscelebratedbyAmericanpeopleincludethefollowingones:

NewYear’sDay,Valentine’sDay,St.Patrick’sDay,AllFools’Day,Mother’sDay,Father’sDay,Halloween,Easter,ThanksgivingDay,andChristmas,etc.

Accordingtothefolklorists’research,traditionalfestivalsindifferentsocietiesderivefromsuchoriginationsaspeople’sexpectationforabountifulharvestintheagriculturalproduction,theprimitiveworshiptowardsthegodsandthenature,sacrificestoancestorsandhistoricalcharactersandsoon,anditisunabletodenythattraditionalfestivalsdisplaytheculturaldifferencesonseveralaspects（Davis,2001;NiandQiao,2003）.Inthemodernworldwithglobalizationtakingsuchafastpace,communicationamongpeopleofdifferentnationalitiesismorecommoninthefieldsofpolitics,economy,culturalandtechnologicalexchangeandothers.Inacontextofdifferentcultures,misunderstandingsandconflictsarelikelytoariseintheprocessofcommunicationwhenthereislittleawarenessofdiverseculturalvaluesandbeliefs.Therefore,therecognitionandunderstandingoftheculturaldifferencesisofgreatimportancetopromotethecross-culturalcommunication.ThispaperisdesignedtoinvestigatetheculturaldifferencesembodiedintraditionalfestivalsinChinaandAmericabasedontheanalysisoftraditionalfestivalsinthetwocultureswithsimilarculturalconnotation.

2.DifferencesbetweenChineseandWesternTraditionalFestivals

Traditionalfestivals,asanintegralpartofthenationalculture,possessrichculturalconnotations.Tosomeextent,traditionalfestivalsarethemanifestationandsublimationofhumanbeings’cognitionandemotionstowardtheworldandinthelightoftheuniversalcognitionandemotionsofhumanbeings,itisnowonderthattherearetraditionalfestivalsinthetwocultureswiththesimilarculturalconnotations（Zhang,2001）.However,behindthesimilarculturalconnotationsoftraditionalfestivals,originsandcustomsofthesefestivalsaregreatlydifferentiated,whichillustratetheculturaldifferencesofthetwonations.

2.1TheSpringFestivalvs.ThanksgivingDay

TheSpringFestivalinChinaandThanksgivingDayinAmericaarebothfestivalsforfamilymemberstoreuniteandtostrengthenthefamilybonds.TheSpringFestivalisthebiggestfestivalobservedbyChinesepeople.However,inthebeginning,the“springfestival”wasnotheldtofarewelltothepastyearandwelcometheChineseLunarNewYear,buttocelebratethecomingof“SpringCommence”（the1stsolarterm）（ChenandLu,1989）.Forwhen“SpringCommence”arrived,whichwasseemedasthecomingofspring,farmershadtosowseedsinthefarmland.Justastheoldsayinggoesthat“Thewholeyear’sworkdependsonagoodstartinspring”（Xiao,2002）.ConcerningtheoriginofThanksgivingDay,itshouldberelatedtothepilgrims.Inhistory,thefirstthanksgivinghadtodatebackto1621.In1620,agroupofpilgrimswhowantedtoescapereligiouspersecutionreachedPlymouthbytheMayFlower（Julian,2004）.Assoonastheysettleddown,theyfoundtheyhadtofaceaterriblewinter—toughweatherandlackoffoodandshelter.ItwasthosenativeIndiansthathelpedthepilgrimstosurvive.Later,theIndianstaughtthenewsettlershowtogrowcornandothercropsandalsohowtofishandhunt.Intheautumnof1621,thepilgrimsenjoyedabountifulharvest.InordertocelebratetheharvestandshowgratitudetotheIndians’help,theyheldafeasttogetherwiththenativeIndians,whichwasrecordedastheoriginofthanksgiving（Geng,2006）.Basedondifferentorigins,thetwofestivalsdevelopedwiththeirownnationalcultureandformedtheuniquecustomsoftheirown.

Amongallthecustoms,foodatthefestivalisthemostremarkable,justastheChinesesayinggoes,“Foodisthefirstnecessityofthepeople.”NomatterattheSpringFestivaloronThanksgivingDay,areuniondinnerwillbesetforcelebration.InChina,thereuniondinnerisheldontheNewYear’sEve,thatis,thedaybeforethefirstdayofthefirstlunarmonth.Themenuforthereuniondinnertraditionallyincludesfish,chickenandotherdeliciousfood.InChinesecharactersthepronunciationof“fish”（“鱼”;inChinesepinying“yú”）makesitahomophonefor“surpluses”（“余”;inChinesepinying“yú”）,inthissense,thefishatthereuniondinneristoexpresspeople’sgoodwishesforthecomingyearwhichareimpliedintheChinesephrase“maytherebesurpluseseveryyear”（“年年有余”;pinying“niánniányǒuyú”）.Therearealsoothertypicalfoodforthisfestival,suchasdumplingsandniangaoknownastheChineseNewYearpudding.TheshapeofthedumplingislikegoldingotfromancientChina,sopeopleeatthemandwishformoneyandtreasure（Tan,2003）.“niangao”,asahomophone,means“higherandhigher,oneyearafteranother.”Atthereuniondinner,thefamilymemberssittogetheraccordingtoaparticularorderinrespecttotheelderinthefamily.WhilethetraditionalAmericanThanksgivingdinnerconsistsofroas