Festivals Bring Us Together

Name: Wu Xinyu College name: Henan Normal University E-mail address: [email protected] Phone number: 187-3850-6585

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Abstract: Every nation in the world has its own unique character, manifested by its culture, and festivals are regarded as cultural heritage— a very important part of culture. Comparing Chinese festivals with American festivals, we can find similarities and differences. Though each festival is unique, we can understand culture better and understand each other better by comparing them.

Keywords: festival, culture difference, festival origin, customs

Introduction: The significance of the word “festival” has become a hot topic, especially among young people. Traditional festivals are the historical products of a nation’s development. After the long-term evolution, traditional festivals have become an indispensable part of the national culture.

Originally, festivals were closely related to the history, customs, religious beliefs, the moral principles, economy of a country and so forth. Most traditional festivals originated from people’s expectation for harvest in the agricultural production, the worship towards the gods and the nature, sacrifices to the historical characters and etc.

Chinese traditional festivals are deeply rooted in the agricultural civilization. But in

America, religion plays a very important role in people’s life, and some American traditional festivals have evolved into the religious festival later.

Each country has its own character, and each festival has its own unique celebration. The festival customs in China and America are very different, and in them we can find the differences between Eastern and Western cultures. They also have similar moral principles, in which we can find shared attributes of human civilizations.

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Today I’m going to discuss the origin and original purpose, different value orientation, and mutual fusion in festivals. Discussing these festivals can bring us closer together. That’s why I chose this topic as my theme. In a word, festival is one of most important parts of our life, our culture and our world.

Body:

A. Origin and Original Purpose

1. Different Origin

a. Agricultural Production

Take Mid-Autumn Festival, for instance. It’s celebrated on the

15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. It is a time for family

members and loved ones to reunion and enjoy the full moon. This

day is also considered as a harvest festival since fruit, vegetables, and

grain had been harvested. On the day of the festival, all people are in

great enjoyment of exciting harvest. According to Chinese

mythology, the earth once had 10 suns circling over it. One day, all

10 suns appeared together, scorching the earth with their heat. The

earth was saved when a strong archer, Hou Yi, succeeded in shooting

down 9 of the suns. Yi also stole the elixir of life to save the people.

But one day, Hou Yi went out hunting, Peng Meng, one of his friends

pretend illness, stayed at his home and wanted to get elixir. Chang-e

knew that they were not rivals, when she took out elixir swallowed.

After Chang-e swallowed drugs, the body immediately floated off the

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ground, out of the window, flew to the sky. As Chang-e worried

about her husband, then flew to the moon from the earth into the

nearest star. And Hou yi missed his wife very much, so he made All

of the things which Chang e used to eat into mooncakes. Thus people

usually eat mooncakes during this festival to celebrate the harvest

and memory this story.

When it comes to the origin of Thanksgiving Day, it had to date

back to 1621. In 1620, a group of pilgrims who wanted to escape

religious persecution reached Plymouth by the May Flower. As soon

as they settled down, they had to face some troubles--tough water

and lack of food and shelter. Later, the Indians taught them how to

grow corn and other crops and how to fish and hunt. In the autumn of

1621, the pilgrims enjoyed a harvest. In order to celebrate the harvest

and show thanks to the help of Indians and the blessing of god, they

held a feast together.

In view of the origin, they both have close relation to agriculture.

And festival activities associated with agricultural production. But

now the influence of agriculture on the festival has faded away, and

they tend to be festivals for family reunion and showing thanks to the

God.

b. Commemoration of An Important Event

When it comes to festivals which commemorates legend people,

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let me show you two examples.

The Dragon Boat Festival also called the Duan Wu Festival is

celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month according to the

Chinese calendar. The festival has been marked by eating zong zi. It

commemorates the poet Qu Yuan(340-278BC) of the state of Chu.

What Qu Yuan wrote is regarded as some of the greatest poetry in

Chinese history. Qu Yuan is a loyal and high minister was disgraced

and dismissed from office because of a dishonest prince vilified Qu.

Realizing that the country was now in the hands of evil officials, Qu

grabbed a large stone and leapt into the Miluo River. Nearby

fishermen rushed over to try and save him but were unable to even

recover his body. But their efforts are still commemorated today

during the Dragon Boat festival.

Easter, which celebrates Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the

dead, is Christianity’s most important history. It is celebrated on

March 21st. There are many Easter Traditions and customs, the most

typical is Easter eggs. It is the symbol of eggs as fertility and

resurrection. Later, Christians also gives new meaning to the egg,

which is a symbol of the tomb of Jesus, the life of the future is born

from it and get rid of the egg.

These two festivals all have the significance to memory the

great historical or legend people.

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c. Farming Civilization And Religious Dominant Position

The farming civilization of Chinese traditional festivals : the

Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival, Qing Ming , Dragon Boat

Festival, July 7th Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Double Ninth

Festival, Laba Festival, these festivals sequentially arranged

according to the season. The timing of Chinese traditional festivals

reflects the dominance of agricultural civilization in China's history.

And it records the development of the history. So, the most ancient

festival in China is farming festival. Take Spring festival, for example,

it falls on the first day of the first month on the Chinese lunar

calendar. It is known as a festival to reunite. However, in the

beginning, the spring festival was celebrated the coming of spring.

When spring arrived, farmers had to sow seeds in the farmland. As

the old saying goes “the whole year’s work depends on a good start in

spring.”

The Christian festivals almost run through the whole year.

According to a 2002 study by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, the

US was the only developed nation in the survey that religion played a

very important role in their life. And religion has penetrated into

people’s daily life, like when a couple gets married, they will be in

the church at the witness of a priest; a baby accepts baptism at birth.

Major Christian festivals, like Christmas. It celebrates Jesus'

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birth. And Good Friday, Good meant “holy” in early Christian times,

Good Friday is a holy day celebrated by Christians on the Friday

before Easter. It commemorates the resurrection of Jesus. Special

prayer services are often held on this day with readings from the

Gospel accounts of the events leading up to the crucifixion.

2. Concluding

Comparing Chinese festivals with American festivals, we can find

the difference of origin and evolution.

As we all know, China is an agricultural country. Chinese traditional

festivals are deeply rooted in the farming civilization. Except farming

festival, there are religious festival, celebration festival and social

entertainment festival and so on.

But America as country of immigration, its cultural tradition mostly

came from Europe, especially from England. From the above

comparison between Chinese festivals and American festivals, it’s

believed that most of American festivals are based on religionary culture.

But with various branches, the religious system of America is quite

complicated, among which Christianity is of the greatest importance.

B. Different Value Orientation

1. Collectivism and Individualism

2. Collectivism or Individualism Embodies in Festivals

Comparing Chinese festivals with American festivals, we can find

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some different value orientation. Qingming Festival falls on the 4th or 5th

of April. On this day, whole families go to visit the graves of deceased

family members to pay respects to their ancestors. According to folk

religion, the spirits of deceased ancestors still live underground or heaven

and look after their families, the tombs are said to be their houses, and

therefore it is very important to keep the tombs clean. So the major

custom in Qingming Festival is tomb sweeping. Halloween is the west”

ghost festival” was celebrated On November 1st. But on Halloween eve,

is a good time for amusement. When night falls, children put on colorful

clothes, shouting: “trick or treat”, “give money or something to eat”.

3. Concluding

In Chinese history, family or clan system occupies an important

position under the influence of Confucian culture. For each family, blood

relationship is the primary relationship between people. Collectivism

especially can be seen in Spring Festival “Chun Yun” (a social

phenomenon in China). In the end of a year, the transportation will be

very crowed and short, because each person wants to go home to take

vacation with their families in Spring Festival. And the government must

carry out many rules to help people go home safely and quickly.

Different from Chinese, individualism embodies in American

festivals. It has nothing to do with egoism, because the true and typical

feature of individualism is the advocating of individual rights and

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freedom. It means by taking responsibility for their behavior. And

individualism pays special attention to democracy and equality its values

of the others and their rights at the same time.

C. Mutual Fusion

1. Mutual Fusion between Chinese and American traditional festival

2. a. The Development of Mutual Fusion

Each country develops its own series of traditional festivals.

Because these differences between China and America, the world is

interesting, beautiful and colorful.

Although there are many differences in practice, symbolism, and

origin, originally, the human culture have many common things,

these things are imposed in depending, interacting, learning from

each other, and promoting ourselves, then promote the culture. After

industrial revolution, especially in The United Kingdom, it

gradually expanded external. When The United Kingdom and other

European countries bring advanced technology, they also output

their cultures, including the western culture of tradition festival.

b. The Performance of Mutual Fusion

Nowadays, by the global economic integration, China opens up

to the world, more and more foreign customs and cultures come into

our country. Recently, Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day,

Valentine’s Day and the Fool’s Day have become popular in China.

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The acceptance of the western culture and Chinese traditions

festivals reflect the fusion of the Eastern and Western.

3. Concluding

China is a country with a long history. There are the nation’s

greatest treasures which we should do our best to protect. How we take

western influence and what relationship should be established between

the eastern and western have become urgent questions for us to answer.

It’s necessary to study the Fusion between China and Western countries

in culture.

Conclusion

From the above comparison between the Chinese festivals and American festivals, we can find the Chinese traditional festivals reflect the characteristics of agricultural civilization. And in the process of the development of the traditional festivals, family or clan system occupies an important position in China while

American is pursuit for individualism. Different the Chinese agricultural civilization, the fast development of industrialization in America is closely related to religion. The culture embodied in American traditional festivals reflects the importance role of religion, especially Christianity. In the end, the future of the world will become a big national village. During the globalization and integration, we must know that learning a language is more than learning the language itself, only when we develop greatest awareness of difference and similarities can we become efficient in another languages.

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