中西方传统节日文化的差异131批次 张明艳 1Word下载.docx

1、Key words: Traditional festivals; Chinese and American culture; cultural differences; causes; mutual fusion.Contents1. Introduction2. Differences between Chinese and Western Traditional Festivals2.1 The Spring Festival vs. Thanksgiving Day2.2 The Zhongyuan Festival vs. Halloween2.3 The Chinese Valen

2、tines Day vs. Valentines Day2.4 Summary3. Major Factors Causing Differences between Chinese and Western TraditionalFestivals3.1 Factors Influencing Chinese Traditional Festivals3.1.1 Agricultural Civilization3.1.2 Confucianism3.2 Major FactorsInfluencing Western Traditional Festivals3.2.1 Industrial

3、ization3.2.2 Christianity4. Mutual Fusion Between Chinese and Western Traditional Holidays4.1 The development of the Mutual Fusion4.2 The Performance of the Mutual Fusion5. ConclusionChina is a multi-ethnic nation, with the Han nationality accounting for the majority of the total population and vari

4、ous ethnic minorities in the minority （Zhao, 2002）. According to Zhao （2002） and Tan （2003）, people in different nationalities or regions celebrate some traditional festivals of their own, while among all the festivals the most typical ones celebrated by Chinese people in common consist of these one

5、s: the Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day, the Dragon-Boat Festival, the Chinese Valentines Day, the Zhongyuan Festival, Mid-Autumn Day, the Double-Ninth Festival, the Winter Solstice, the Laba Festival, and the Kitchen God Festival, etc.Different from China, America is a multi

6、-cultural nation with the immigrants taking a large proportion of its population and people from different countries live together and the cultures brought with them melt into the distinct American culture （Wu, 2003; Hu, 2004; William, 2007）. In the system of American traditional festivals, there ar

7、e festivals originating in the homeland and festivals brought from the foreign lands. The festivals in America can be divided into the legal holidays and traditional ones; besides, some states also celebrate a few festivals of their own （Ellinwood, 2005）. In general, according to Samovar et al. （200

8、8）, the most popular traditional festivals celebrated by American people include the following ones: New Years Day, Valentines Day, St. Patricks Day, All Fools Day, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Halloween, Easter, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas, etc.According to the folklorists research, traditional fe

9、stivals in different societies derive from such originations as peoples expectation for a bountiful harvest in the agricultural production, the primitive worship towards the gods and the nature, sacrifices to ancestors and historical characters and so on, and it is unable to deny that traditional fe

10、stivals display the cultural differences on several aspects （Davis, 2001; Ni and Qiao, 2003）. In the modern world with globalization taking such a fast pace, communication among people of different nationalities is more common in the fields of politics, economy, cultural and technological exchange a

11、nd others. In a context of different cultures, misunderstandings and conflicts are likely to arise in the process of communication when there is little awareness of diverse cultural values and beliefs. Therefore, the recognition and understanding of the cultural differences is of great importance to

12、 promote the cross-cultural communication. This paper is designed to investigate the cultural differences embodied in traditional festivals in China and America based on the analysis of traditional festivals in the two cultures with similar cultural connotation.Traditional festivals, as an integral

13、part of the national culture, possess rich cultural connotations. To some extent, traditional festivals are the manifestation and sublimation of human beings cognition and emotions toward the world and in the light of the universal cognition and emotions of human beings, it is no wonder that there a

14、re traditional festivals in the two cultures with the similar cultural connotations （Zhang, 2001）. However, behind the similar cultural connotations of traditional festivals, origins and customs of these festivals are greatly differentiated, which illustrate the cultural differences of the two natio

15、ns. The Spring Festival in China and Thanksgiving Day in America are both festivals for family members to reunite and to strengthen the family bonds. The Spring Festival is the biggest festival observed by Chinese people. However, in the beginning, the “spring festival” was not held to farewell to t

16、he past year and welcome the Chinese Lunar New Year, but to celebrate the coming of “Spring Commence”（the 1st solar term） （Chen and Lu, 1989）. For when “Spring Commence” arrived, which was seemed as the coming of spring, farmers had to sow seeds in the farmland. Just as the old saying goes that “The

17、 whole years work depends on a good start in spring” （Xiao, 2002）. Concerning the origin of Thanksgiving Day, it should be related to the pilgrims. In history, the first thanksgiving had to date back to 1621. In 1620, a group of pilgrims who wanted to escape religious persecution reached Plymouth by

18、 the May Flower （Julian, 2004）. As soon as they settled down, they found they had to face a terrible wintertough weather and lack of food and shelter. It was those native Indians that helped the pilgrims to survive. Later, the Indians taught the new settlers how to grow corn and other crops and also

19、 how to fish and hunt. In the autumn of 1621, the pilgrims enjoyed a bountiful harvest. In order to celebrate the harvest and show gratitude to the Indians help, they held a feast together with the native Indians, which was recorded as the origin of thanksgiving （Geng, 2006）. Based on different orig

20、ins, the two festivals developed with their own national culture and formed the unique customs of their own.Among all the customs, food at the festival is the most remarkable, just as the Chinese saying goes, “Food is the first necessity of the people.” No matter at the Spring Festival or on Thanksg

21、iving Day, a reunion dinner will be set for celebration. In China, the reunion dinner is held on the New Years Eve, that is, the day before the first day of the first lunar month. The menu for the reunion dinner traditionally includes fish, chicken and other delicious food. In Chinese characters the

22、 pronunciation of “fish” （“鱼”; in Chinese pinying “y”） makes it a homophone for “surpluses”（ “余”;”）, in this sense, the fish at the reunion dinner is to express peoples good wishes for the coming year which are implied in the Chinese phrase “may there be surpluses every year”（“年年有余”; pinying “nin ni

23、n yu y”）. There are also other typical food for this festival, such as dumplings and nian gao known as the Chinese New Year pudding. The shape of the dumpling is like gold ingot from ancient China, so people eat them and wish for money and treasure （Tan, 2003）. “nian gao”, as a homophone, means “hig

24、her and higher, one year after another.” At the reunion dinner, the family members sit together according to a particular order in respect to the elder in the family. While the traditional American Thanksgiving dinner consists of roast turkey served with mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, swee

25、t potatoes, vegetables, fresh corn bread and ends with pumpkin pie. Family members sit together at the dinner table to enjoy the joyful time of reunion. （Hu, 2004） In celebrations at home, it is a holiday tradition in many families to begin the Thanksgiving dinner by saying grace. Grace is a prayer before or after a meal to express appreciation to God, to ask for Gods blessing.Despite the difference in the food culture, the celebrations of the two festivals also differ a