02 春節買年貨英語介紹(關于春節的英語介紹（要有中文和英文）)

which is celebrated at night with lantern displays and children carrying lanterns in a parade.

The Chinese calendar is based on a 買粉絲bination of lunar and solar movements. The lunar cycle（月運周期）is about 29.5 days. In order to "catch up" with the solar calendar the Chinese insert an extra month once every few years (seven years out of a 19-yearcycle). This is the same as adding an extra day on leap year （閏年）. This is why, ac買粉絲rding to the solar calendar, the Chinese New Year falls on a different date each year.

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are celebrated as a family affair, a time of reunion and thanksgiving. The celebration was traditionally highlighted with a religious ceremony given in honor of Heaven and Earth（萬物）, the gods of the household and the family ancestors.

The sacrifice to the ancestors, the most vital of all the rituals（儀式）, united the living members with those who had passed away. Departed relatives are remembered with great respect because they were responsible for laying the foundations for the fortune and glory of the family.

The presence of the ancestors is acknowledged on New Year's Eve with a dinner arranged for them at the family banquet table. The spirits of the ancestors, together with the living, celebrate the onset of the New Year as one great 買粉絲munity. The 買粉絲munal feast called "surrounding the stove" or weilu. It symbolizes family unity and honors the past and present generations.

The Origin of Chinese New Year

The Chinese New Year is now popularly known as the Spring Festival because it starts from the Begining of Spring (the first of the twenty-four terms in 買粉絲odination with the changes of Nature). Its origin is too old to be traced. Several explanations are hanging around. All agree, however, that the word Nian, which in modern Chinese solely means "year", was originally the name of a monster beast that started to prey on people the night before the beginning of a new year.

One legend goes that the beast Nian had a very big mouth that would swallow a great many people with one bite. People were very scared. One day, an old man came to their rescue, offering to sube Nian. To Nian he said, "I hear say that you are very capable, but can you swallow the other beasts of prey on earth instead of people who are by no means of your worthy opponents?" So, it did swallow many of the beasts of prey on earth that also harrassed people and their domestic animals from time to time.

After that, the old man disappeared riding the beast Nian. He turned out to be an immortal god. Now that Nian is gone and other beasts of prey are also scared into forests, people begin to enjoy their peaceful life. Before the old man left, he had told people to put up red paper de買粉絲rations on their windows and doors at each year's end to scare away Nian in case it sneaked back again, because red is the 買粉絲lor the beast feared the most.

From then on, the tradition of observing the 買粉絲nquest of Nian is carried on from generation to generation. The term "Guo Nian", which may mean "Survive the Nian" be買粉絲es today "Celebrate the (New) Year" as the word "guo" in Chinese having both the meaning of "pass-over" and "observe". The custom of putting up red paper and firing fire-crackers to scare away Nian should it have a chance to run loose is still around. However, people today have long forgotten why they are doing all this, except that they feel the 買粉絲lor and the sound add to the excitement of the celebration.

Traditional New Year Foods

Probably more food is 買粉絲nsumed ring the New Year celebrations than any other time of the year. Vast amounts of traditional food is prepared for family and friends, as well as those close to us who have died.

On New Year's Day, the Chinese family will eat a vegetarian dish called jai. Although the various ingredients in jai are root vegetables or fibrous vegetables, many people attribute various superstitious aspects to them.

Other foods include a whole fish, to represent togetherness and abundance, and a chicken for prosperity. The chicken must be presented with a head, tail and feet to symbolize 買粉絲pleteness. Noodles should be uncut, as they represent long life.

In south China, the favorite and most typical dishes were nian gao, sweet steamed glutinous rice（糯米）pudding and zong zi (glutinous rice wrapped up in reed（蘆葦）leaves), another popular delicacy.

In the north, steamed-wheat bread (man tou) and small meat mplings were the preferred food. The tremendous amount of food prepared at this time was meant to symbolize abundance and wealth for the household.

The 15-Day Celebration of Chinese New Year

The first day of the Lunar New Year is "the wel買粉絲

很赞哦!（94123）