留学生的新年贺礼：如何让老外懂得中国传统节日春节

zliycdr

正在申请的同学们：

正如老大说的一样，或许今后的几年你们出国在外的时候
也许会感到孤独；
也许会体会到，如果不大声地放开着电脑放春晚，“这里的黎明静悄悄”；
也许会正好在上课甚至正在考试的时候，国内开始新年倒计时；
也许……

不过我们可以换着法子热闹，这就是一个上课推销春节的方式：
（Text & PowerPoint attached）

Hey guys,

I am glad to introduce the most important Festival in China, the Chinese New Year to all of you.

The Chinese New Year is also known as "Spring Festival", which represents the beginning of the spring season. It is the first day of a Chinese Year, and a typical Chinese Year is measured by a Chinese Lunar Calendar. In such a calendar, the Chinese New Year usually appears approximately one months after the regular calendar. For example, the first day of the next Chinese Year is (tomorrow) February 3rd.

In the lunar calendar, there is a twelve-year cycle, called the Chinese Zodiac. Similar to the Western Zodiac that has a cycle of 12 months, the Chinese Zodiac is divided into 12 years, with twelve animals assigned to every year, and the twelve-year circle is regarded as the circle of fate, all of us here have his or her year of fate every twelve years. The twelve animals are: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog, pig. The Chinese Year begins tomorrow is the Rabbit Year, and 24 years ago, the lunar year 1987 (which is actually the time between 1987.1.28 and 1988.2.16) is also a rabbit year. How many of you were born in 1987, raise your hands... So you are assigned to the animal rabbit, and the (following) New Chinese Year is your year of fate.

It is said that, those who were born in the year with the same assigned animals has similar personalities in general. For example, my roommates is a rabbit, I mean, he was born in the year of rabbit, from the Wikipedia I know that he is brilliant, trusted; and I am a dragon, and I find I am brave and trusting. You know, trusted and trusting, we are best friends. Those of you who were born in the year of rabbit, do you feel yourself brilliant and trusted? (If, you don't respond, I regard your answer is yes.)

Actually, the Chinese New Year is celebrated in countries and territories with significant Chinese populations, for example, China (including mainland, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan), a portion of Korea and Japan, a majority part of Southeast Asia (including Thailand, Laos, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam), and of course, the Chinatown from all over the world. During the Chinese New Year, our traditional activities includes things as follows. First, making and eating dumplings. Well, here I don't mean that, the dumplings we make are like those in the panda express: those are full of cheese and vegetables, but the dumplings we make are full of selected pork and beef, and tasted really awesome! We also decorate our houses with red lanterns (the light in the top left picture) and (these red papers with black Chinese word prints on the right, in Chinese we call it) "ChunLian", the traditional Chinese dual line poetry. Another important activity is the firework. There is an old Chinese fairy tale that, in ancient times, a monster called "the Year", usually came out at the beginning of the spring to attack residents in China. To protect themselves, these people set off firecrackers to frighten the monster and made it run away. The tradition last till today. But when we set off fireworks at the beginning of the Chinese New Year, just by the New Year's bell rang, all our hope is to wipe out all the bad luck we have in the last year, and to wish we could have a better fortune in the future.

That's all about this festival. At the end of the Speech, I wish all of you: Happy Chinese New Year. "XinChun KuaiLe!" Thanks.


之后么就是一群反响强烈的老外踊跃提问了。。

Q1: Who places the 12 animals' order?
A1: Can I say, the Chinese God? Actually in a fairy tale, the God set a race to decide which animal will be the first. The clever rat jumped on the strongest animal ox and said "Run and I'll point you the closest way!" But just at the finish line, the rat made a jump over the ox and took the first place. That is why a small but clever rat can be the first of that order.

Q2: Could you talk more about the "year of fate"? Why is that significant for us?
A2: Actually, I don't know how to say "本命年", so we make a translation of that word to "the year of fate". It is said that, in your year of fate, you may face some big challenges (for example, in 24 you will have your first interview and job search, and in 36 you'll have the first change to become a senior manager). So you should carefully consider before you make any decision, and in Chinese tradition, you should wear red all the year round.

总之，希望在看到这么个菜鸟级别的Presentation帖子之后，我们CDers今后在外，可以多把春节这样的传统节日推广到世界各地。
这样以后不论走到哪，我们都不会孤独地一个人过节！

新春快乐

Golden
(Special thanks to roommate "fingereleven"~)

Zeros

沙发，沙发。

Golden真是行动派，Slides做得很漂漂，赞一个。

windypig123

板凳板凳~你们在国外能看春晚么

cutewen

好东西~俺留着了~~~我这SHI英语。。绝对说不清楚- -~~~

vivianxiong

赞一个！真有心！

踏雪无痕1989

传说中的golden~~支持一下哈~~

Inflation

好东西~~~收藏啦 多谢Golden前辈~~

KiteRunner

哇 好给力~~~果断收藏！！！

毛毛carina

还有首页，哦也

毛毛carina

沙发，沙发。

Golden真是行动派，Slides做得很漂漂，赞一个。

-- by 会员 Zeros (2011/2/3 8:38:50)

·~~~沙发居然是……啊啊啊啊golden木有给我内部