Talking about China II-4 Text Translation

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Ok, I'll first tell you the customs and habits of the Chinese spending the Spring Festival, then again talk about the reason why firecrackers are set off on the New Year's eve.

Today is the first day of the first month of the agricultural calendar. Every year close to the Spring Festival, all the families and households make the inside and the outside of their houses clean, and they also hang up New Year paintings and post Spring couplets.

Now fewer people hang NY paintings and post Spring couplets in urban areas, there are still many in the countryside. On the NY's Eve, no matter where, the cities or the countryside, all the households will eat dumplings. On the day of Spring Festival, the whole family together eat a reunification dinner, and relatives and friends mutually greet one another. If someone in a family is in another place, he will try as much as he can to come back home for the Spring Festival.

Thus saying, it is almost the same as the Americans spend their Christmas.

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What if the relative in another place cannot make it home? Then he will miss home and his family will miss him. As the saying goes:" Every time when it is the Festival, we miss more our relatives". Among the ordinary people, there are also various kinds of celebrations, such as playing with lions and dragon lanterns.

Then why setting off firecrackers?

Firecrackers are also called exploding bamboo. It is said that in the ancient times, people in order to drive away demons, send off the old year and welcome the new year, burn bamboo over fire on the NY's Eve, When bamboo caught fire, it would give off exploding sounds. From this we can see, the earliest firecrackers were nothing but the burning of bamboo. Later, firecrackers after constant improvement, became today's firecrackers.

What other traditional festivals does China have?

The 15^th day of the 1^st month of the lunar calendar is the First Month Dumpling Festival, also called the Lantern Festival. In the evening, lanterns are hung up in big streets and small lanes and many households eat glutinous rice flour dumplings.

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What are they made of, Delicious?

The first month dumpling is made of glutinous rice flour in the shape of ping pong, both white and round, inside there is the filling, which is sweet, and very delicious!

To spend the first month dumpling festival, apart from hanging lanterns and eating first month dumplings, there is also the game of guessing at lantern riddles.

Why called so? Do they write the riddles on the lanterns?

In the past it was indeed so, but not necessarily later.

It is very interesting to guess the lantern riddles. I will give you two for your to guess: one and one does not make two.

What? how much then?

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Not two in anyway. As to what it is, I cannot tell you.

I say it is "Wang".

One and one makes two obviously, why "Wang"

Look, one bar plus another, isn't it the character for "wang"?

No wonder.

After all, it is Linda who is good at this, who get the answer right away. I will give you another one. "White and round, sticky when in the pot, sweet when in the mouth, sold on the 15^th day of the first lunar calendar month.: Whoever first get the answer will be rewarded with a piece of chocolate.

I get it, it is the first month dumpling.

Yes. This chocolate is yours now.

I hear there is another festival when people eat zongzi, what is it?

Duanwu Festical, also called Duanyang Festival.

The Spring Festical is the first day of the first month, the first month dumpling festival is on the 15^th. What day is the Duanwu Festival?

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It is the 5^th day of the 5^th month.

Can you tell us the origin of the festival?

OK. during the Warring States Period, in the State of Chu, there lived a great patriotic poet, called Qu Yuan. He proposed the policy of making the country rich and the military strong, and allying with the State of Qi to resist the hegemony of the State of Qin. But the King of Chu was corrupted and capable of nothing. He not only disregard Qu's words, instead he drove Qu out of the capital of the state. As a result, Chu was wiped out by Qin. Qu Yuan, seeing that the capital was taken by the enemy, was very painful and on the 5^th day of the 5^th month jumped into a river and drowned himself. At that time, when the people of Chu heard the news, they rowed boats in the river in order to get Qu's body. In order not to let fish and shrimps and lobsters eat his body, they also threw glutinous rice into the river. Later the custom of throwing rice became eating zongzi, a triangular rice cake wrapped in reed leaves, and rowing boats became dragon boat race. We now celebrate the Duanwu Festival is to commemorate this great patriotic poet.

Say something about the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The Spring Festival, the first month dumpling festival and the Duanwu Festival have all been introduced by me. Now it is your turn to introduce the Mid-Autumn Festival.

OK, if it is me, it's me. The 15^th day of the 8^th month of the agricultural calendar is the Mid-Autumn Festival. On the evening of the day, the whole family sit together, appreciating the moon while eating moon cakes. Both the moon and the moon cakes are round, symbolizing family reunion. The song Dynasty's great poet Su Shi has a piece of lyric, the first two sentences of which read " When is there a bright moon, I ask the azure sky with a cup of wine in my hand." This poem is about the Mid-Autumn Festival.

(Talking about the poem----- Read the poem with pinyin and translation on your bulletin board)

Well written.

Aren't we going to greet Zhang Laoshi? It is time we went.

Bye.

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There are various traditional festivals for all the nationalities in China. Each festival witnesses its own festivities, and each follows a course of its own. Most traditional festivals, except one or two of Taoist or Buddhist origin, date back to the Qin dynasty (221-206 B.C.), some even to three or four thousand years ago.

The Dragon Boat race, which was held on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month for worshipping the dragon totem by the ancient citizens of Zhejiang province, is regarded by some famous scholars as the origin of the Dragon Boat festival.

Most festivals fall on uneven dates, especially on both odd dates and odd months, such as New Year's Day on the 1st day of the 1st month, the Dragon Boat festival on the 5th day of the 5th month, the Double 9th Festival on the 9th day of the 9th lunar month.

The rite for exorcising the devil that caused plagues, which was very popular in the Qin Dynasty, was also a superstition. Later this rite became necessary not only to the festivities on New Year's Eve, but also on the 8th of the 12th lunar month and the day (the 23rd of the 12th lunar month) on which the kitchen god went up to heaven.

The period from the Southern Dynasty to Northern Dynasty (265618) was a period in which the development of festival customs showed great variations and was impacted by Taoism and Buddhism