Festivals Bring Us Together Name: Wu Xinyu College name: Henan Normal University E-mail address: [email protected] Phone number: 187-3850-6585 1 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. 2 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 3 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, 4 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. 5 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' 6 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 7 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.