春节习俗（三）

The Spring Festival is a traditional Chinese festival and also the most important one of the whole year. Through the evolvement of thousands of years, a series of customs are spreading far and wide.

春节是中国传统的节日也是全年中最重要的节日。几千年来，一系列的习俗在四面八方蔓延开来。

扫尘 Sweeping the Dust

"Dust" is homophonic with "chen"（尘）in Chinese, which means old and past. In this way, “sweeping the dust” before the Spring Festival means a thorough cleaning of houses to sweep away bad luck in the past year. This custom shows a good wish of putting away old things to welcome a new life. In a word, just before the Spring Festival comes, every household will give a thorough cleaning to bid farewell to the old year and usher in the new.

"Dust"与“尘”是谐音（尘在汉语中的意思是旧的和过去的）。这样，“在春节前扫尘”是指彻底清洁房屋扫除过去一年的厄运。此习俗表达了收拾旧事物，欢迎新生活的美好愿望。总之，就在春节到来之前，为了告别旧年迎接新年，家家户户都会彻底打扫一下房屋

贴春联 Pasting Spring Couplets

“The Spring Couplet”, also called “couplet” and “a pair of antithetical phrases”, is a special form of literature in China. The Spring Couplet is composed of two antithetical sentences on both sides of the door and a horizontal scroll bearing an inscription, usually an auspicious phrase, above the gate. The sentence pasting on the right side of the door is called the first line of the couplet and the one on the left the second line. On the eve of the Spring Festival, every household will paste on doors a spring couplet written on red paper to give a happy and prosperous atmosphere of the Festival. In the past, the Chinese usually wrote their own spring couplet with a brush or asked others to do for them, while nowadays, it is common for people to buy the printed spring couplet in the market.

“春联”也被称为和“对联”对立的一对短语，在中国是一种特殊的文学形式。春联是由贴在门口两侧两组对立的句子组成，在门上面的横批通常是一个吉祥的短语。贴在门右侧的句子被称作对联的上联，左侧的为下联。除夕那天，每家都会在门上贴上红纸写的春联，传递出节日喜庆和热闹的气氛。在过去，中国人通常用毛笔自己写春联或者请别人写春联，而现在，人们普遍在市场上买印刷好的春联。

贴窗花和“福”字 Pasting Paper-cuts and “Up-sided Fu”

Paper-cuts, usually with auspicious patterns, give a happy and prosperous atmosphere of the Festival and express the good wishes of Chinese people looking forward to a good life. In addition to pasting paper-cuts on windows, it is common for Chinese to paste the character “fu（福）”, big and small, on walls, doors and doorposts around the houses. “Fu（福）” shows people’s yearning toward a good life. Some people even invert the character “fu（福）” to signify that blessing has arrived because “inverted” is a homonym for “arrive” in Chinese. Now many kinds of paper-cuts and “fu（福）” can be seen in the market before the Festival.

通常带有吉祥图案的窗花传递节日喜庆和热闹的气氛和表达中国人期待幸福生活的美好愿望。除了贴窗花，在墙上，门上和房子周围的门框上贴大小福字是中国人表达对美好生活渴望的普遍习俗。一些人甚至倒贴福字来表示福到了，因为在汉语中“倒”是“到”的谐音。现在在春节前的市场上随处可见各种各样的窗花和福字。

守岁 Staying Up Late on New Year's Eve

The tradition of staying up late to see New Year in originated from an interesting folk tale. In ancient China there lived a monster named Year, who was very ferocious. Year always went out from its burrow on New Year’s Eve to devour people. Therefore, on every New Year’s Eve, every household would have supper together. After dinner, no one dared go to sleep and all the family members would sit together, chatting and emboldening each other. Gradually the habit of staying up late on New Year’s Eve is formed. Thus in China, “celebrating the Spring Festival” is also called “passing over the year (guo nian)”. However, now there are less and less people in cities who will stay up late to see New Year in.

守岁的传统源自于一个有趣的民间故事。在中国古代有一个叫作‘年’的凶猛怪物，在除夕夜‘年’会从地洞里出来吃人。因此在除夕夜，每家每户都会一起吃晚饭，晚饭以后没人敢睡觉，所有的家庭成员会坐在一起聊天互相壮胆。逐渐在除夕夜守岁的习惯形成了，因此在中国，庆祝春节也被叫作过年。然而在城市里很少有人以守岁来欢迎新年。

贴年画 Pasting New Year Prints

The custom of pasting New Year Prints originated from the tradition of placing Door Gods on the external doors of houses. With the creation of board carvings, New Year paintings cover a wide range of subjects. The most famous ones are Door Gods, Surplus Year after Year, Three Gods of Blessing, Salary and Longevity, An Abundant Harvest of Crops, Thriving Domestic Animals and Celebrating Spring. Four producing areas of New Year Print are Tɑohuɑwu of Suzhou, Yɑngliuqing of Tianjin, Wuqiɑng of Hebei and Weifang of Shangdong. Now the tradition of pasting New Year paintings is still kept in rural China, while it is seldom followed in cities.

贴年画的风俗源自于把房子外面的门上贴门神的传统。随着木质雕刻品的出现，年画包含了更广泛的主题，最出名的就是门神，三大神-福神薪神和寿神，庄稼丰收，家畜兴旺，和庆祝春节。年画的四大产地分别是苏州桃花坞，天津杨柳青，河北武强和山东潍坊。现在中国农村仍然保持着贴年画的传统，而在城市里很少有人贴年画。

吃饺子 Having Jiaozi

On New Year’s Eve, the whole family will sit together to make jiaozi and celebrate the Spring Festival. The shape of jiaozi is like gold ingot from ancient China. So people eat them and wish for money and treasure. The tradition of having jiaozi is very important during the Spring Festival. You cannot have a complete Spring Festival without having jiaozi. (See page 82 for more information about “jiaozi”)

在除夕那天，全家人会坐在一起包饺子庆祝春节。饺子的形状像中国古代的金元宝，因此人们吃饺子以此来希望财富到来。在春节期间吃饺子是很重要的传统习俗。如果没有吃饺子，你将不能拥有一个完整的春节。

看春节联欢晚会 The CCTV New Year's Gala

The New Year’s Gala is a variety show held by China Central Television (CCTV) since 1983. For every year since then at the turn of the Lunar New Year, the program begins at 8:00PM and lasts five or six hours. It brings laughter to billions of people, creates many popular words and produces lots of TV phenomena meriting attention. For over twenty years, its value has gone far beyond a variety show. It is essential entertainment for the Chinese both at home and abroad. Many Chinese would like to watch the gala while having the dinner on New Year’s Eve.

新年联欢晚会是自1983年以来中央电视台举办的综艺节目。从那时候起每年在农历新年交替的时候，晚上八点节目开始并持续五六个小时左右，春节晚会给数亿人带来了笑声，创造了许多流行词汇和值得关注的许多电视现象。20多年以来，它的价值已经远远超过了文艺晚会。对于国内外的中国人都是非常必要的娱乐活动，许多中国人想一边吃除夕晚宴，一边看春节联欢晚会。

放鞭炮 Setting off Firecrackers

The firecracker is a unique product in China. In ancient China, the sound of burning bamboo tubes was used to scare away wild animals and evil spirits. With the invention of the gunpowder, “firecracker” is also called “鞭炮biānpào” (“炮” in Chinese means gun) and used to foster a joyful atmosphere. The first thing every Chinese household does is to set off firecrackers and fireworks, which are meant to bid farewell to the old year and usher in the new. In the past few years, such an activity was completely or partially forbidden in big cities including Beijing due to fire and personal casualty caused by burning firecrackers. However, some Chinese thought that a Spring Festival without firecrackers was not lively enough and they burned firecrackers by stealth. So in recent years, the ban was canceled again. This shows that burning firecrackers is a very important activity during the Spring Festival.

在中国爆竹是一件特殊的产品。在中国古代，燃烧竹管的声音被用来吓走动物和恶鬼。随着火药的发明，爆竹也被称作鞭炮，用来营造欢乐的气氛。在中国每家每户第一件事要做的就是放烟花爆竹，因为这意味着告别旧年迎接新年。在过去的几年中，由于燃烧爆竹所引起的火灾和个人伤害在一些包括北京的大城市已经完全或者部分禁止放鞭炮了。然而有些中国人认为没有烟花的春节不够热闹和生气勃勃因此他们偷偷地放鞭炮。因此在近几年，再次取消了这个禁令。这表明了在春节期间放鞭炮是非常重要的活动。

拜年和压岁钱 New Year's Visit and Gift Money

On the first day of the Chinese lunar year, everybody puts on their best clothes and pays ceremonial calls on their relatives and friends, wishing them all the luck in the coming year. Juniors will greet seniors, wishing them health and longevity, while seniors will give juniors some gift money as a wish for their safety in the coming year. When friends meet, they will wish each other happiness and prosperity with a big smile. With the development of the new technology, there is a change on the way of giving New Years greetings. In recent year, it is common to send New Years greetings by such modern means of communication as telephones, emails and text messages.

中国农历新年的第一天每个人都会穿上他们最漂亮的衣服，礼节性地拜访亲戚和朋友，祝愿他们新的一年中好运。小辈会问候老辈，祝福他们健康长寿，同时老辈会给小辈压岁钱祝福他们来年平安。随着新技术的发展，通过现代通讯手段如电话，发邮件和短信息等来送出新年问候已经非常普遍了。

逛庙会 Temple Fair

Temple fair, usually held outside temples, is a kind of folk custom in China. During the Spring Festival, temple fair is one of the most important activities, in which there are such performances as acrobatics and Wushu, numerous kinds of local snacks and many kinds of things for everyday life. In recent years, the temple fair has become a place for people to appreciate the traditional art and experience the traditional life.

庙会通常在寺庙外举行，是中国的一种民间习俗。在春节期间，逛庙会是一种最重要的活动之一，在庙会上有杂技和武术表演，数不清的地方小吃和日常生活中的许多小玩意。近几年来，庙会已经成了人们欣赏传统艺术和体验传统生活的地方。

Festival Greetings

Traditional Festival Greetings:

恭贺新禧 | Happy New Year

吉祥如意 | Everything Goes Well

恭喜发财 | Wishing You Prosperity

年年有余 | Surplus Year after Year

岁岁平安 | Peace All Year Round

新春大吉 | Good Luck in the New Year

In the past two years, it has become a vogue for relatives and friends to send short messages to greet each other during the Spring Festival. With best wishes, the warm greetings of text messages give a happy and joyful atmosphere of the Festival.

Festival Greetings via Text Message

① 送你一件外套，前面是平安，后面是幸福，领子是吉祥，袖子是如意，扣子是快乐，口袋里满是温暖，穿上吧，让它伴你每一天！新春快乐！

I will give you a coat as a present. The front is safety, the back happiness, the collar auspiciousness, the sleeves satisfaction, the buttons enjoyment and the pockets warmness. Wear every day. Wish you a happy New Year.

② 新年到了，不打算送给你太多，只给你五千万：千万要快乐！千万要健康！千万要平安！千万要知足！千万不要忘记我！

As the New Year comes, I will only give you five “do’s” as a present. Do be merry! Do be healthy! Do be safe! Do be satisfied! Do remember me!

 （听力课堂网Vicky翻译）

更多春节内容 》》