A Brief Comparison of Chinese and Western Festival

A Brief Comparison of Chinese and Western Festivals
I. Introduction
Festival is defined as a special occasion on which people may give thanks for a harvest, commemorate an honored person or event, pay respect to the dead, or celebrate a culture. Festival, as a cultural phenomenon, comes into being during the course of human development and historical evolution. This unique cultural phenomenon embodies human cognition and attention to the natural environments and peripheral surroundings. As we know, a diverse multitude of festivals are enjoyed worldwide. Although the different regions, nations, religions and cultures bring about multifarious festivals, and the means of celebration vary from one place to another, most of people bear common feelings for the festivals, that is praying for happiness and health, fulfilling the good will, and showing the love of life. The festival celebration also expresses people’s reminiscent mood for traditions and convey their aspiration to pursue the dreams.
Festival is considered as “ a carrier of culture”, or an embodiment of the patterns of behavior and thinking that people learn, create and share. Through this unique and specific phenomenon, it is more convenient and direct for the researcher
to probe into the deeper layer of human culture. Moreover, the festival provides us a shortcut to explore the divergence and similarity of two cultures. As we know, it is impossible for us to make research on all aspects of festival customs since culture itself is a very complicated phenomenon. Thus, I just choose some representative and well-known festivals--- Spring Festival & Christmas Day to make a brief comparison.
II. Comparison of Spring Festival & Christmas Day
1. Origin of the Holidays
In China, Spring Festival is the first and foremost one that should be mentioned. Spring Festival is also known as the Chinese New Year. Spring Festival starts with the new moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. So the timing of the holiday varies from late January to early February. The Spring festival celebrates the earth coming back to life, and the start of ploughing and sowing. In the past, feudal rulers of dynasties placed great importance on this occasion, and ceremonies to usher in the season were performed.
The first day of lunar years called “nian chu yi” (the first day of nian). There is folklore about the monster called “nian”. In fact, the festival stems from the agricultural
production. China is an agricultural country and our ancestors have known how to crop in the fields and formed a farming industry thousands of years ago. After accumulating experience during the long-time cultivation, the ancient people find out that the proper seeds planting in springtime leads to a good harvest in autumn. Later, a famous saying comes into being “the whole year’s work depends on a good starting in spring( 一年之际在于春 )”. Therefore, the springtime becomes the prime time for the Chinese. Because the Chinese regard springtime as a start of the whole year, no wonder the Chinese place so much emphasis on the springtime, and Spring Festival is treated as such an important festival. Meanwhile, this festival mirrors the Chinese’ attitudes to the relationship between nature and human---keeping harmony. In daily life and work, people find a certain rule in nature; following it, people set the production schedule to help plant in a reasonable way. In nature, people make development and enjoy life.
Christmas to the westerns is compared as Spring Festival to Chinese. It is on December 25th every year and usually lasts for a week, until a new year. Christmas originated from Europe. How Christmas comes into being must date back to 1A.D.when Jesus came into world. The name Christmas is short for “Christ’s
Mass”. A Ma ss is a kind of church service. Christmas is the feast of the nativity of Jesus, is on 25th, December every year. It is the day we celebrate as the birthday of Jesus. In Bible, there is a vivid description of the story about Jesus birth: in a city of Galil ee, the virgin’s name was Mary was betrothed to Joseph. Before they came tighter, she was found with a child of the Holy Spirit. While Joseph her husband wanted to put her away secretly, Gabriel, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and told him not be afraid to take Mary as wife. And Mary would bring forth a son, and he should call him, Jesus, for he would save his people from their sins. Finally, on December 25th, Mary brought forth her firstborn son---Jesus.
2. Preparation for the Holidays
Preparations for the New Year festival start during the last few days of the last moon. Houses are thoroughly cleaned, debts repaid, hair cut and new clothes bought. Doors are decorated with vertical scrolls of characters on red paper whose texts seek good luck and praise nature, this practice stemming from the hanging of peach-wood charms to keep away ghosts and evil spirits. In many homes incense is burned, and also in the temples as a mark of respect to ancestors. In addition, symbolic flowers and fruits were used to decorate the house, and colorful
new year pictures (NIAN HUA) were placed on the walls (for more descriptions of the symbolism of the flowers and fruits. Preparation for Christmas starts in early December when decorations are put up, including door wreaths, artificial trees and nativity scenes. A common tradition is that of decorating and blessing their Christmas tree. Often the Sunday before Christmas is set aside for this task. Decorations include colored lights (which replace an earlier era''s candles), balls (originally reflecting the candlelight in a dazzling way), tinsel (resembling the glittering icicles found on fir trees in colder lands), chrismons (wooden or foam symbols or monograms for Christ), and on top, a star. The roots of the use of trees and decorations are definitely in Europe''s pre-Christian religions, but the symbols were transformed by the early missionaries in order to express some aspect of Christ''s life. Sometimes, the meaning was much the same as the pagans treasured, but drawn through Christ. In other cases, the old meaning was deliberately turned inside-out to bring further honor to God and more cause for the people to celebrate. Christmas cards are sent out to family and friends. In many homes, Christmas cakes and puddings will be baked ready to eat on Christmas Day. In the cities and towns, many shopping centres
and stores have their own ''Santa'' for children to meet. 3. Activities of the Holidays
On New Year’s Eve houses are brightly lit and a large family dinner is served. The New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day celebrations were strickly family affairs. All members of the family would gather for the important family meal on the evening of the New year’s Eve. Even if a family member could not attend, an empty seat woul d be kept to symbolize that person’s presence at the banquet. At midnight following the banquet, the younger members of the family would bow and pay their respects to their parents and elders. In the south China sticky-sweet glutinous rice pudding called nian gao is served, while in the north the steamed dumpling jiaozi is popular. Most celebrating the festival stay up till midnight, when fireworks are lit, to drive away evil spirits. New Years day is often spent visiting neighbours, family and friends. The children are given Red Lai-See Envelopes , good luck money wrapped in little red envelopes. On New Year’s day, everyone had on new clothes, and would put on his best behavior. It was considered improper to tell a lie, raise one’s voice, use indecent langu age, or break anything on the first day of the year. Starting from the second day, people began going out to visit friends and relatives,
taking with them gifts and Lai-See for the children. Visitors would be greeted with traditional New year delicacies, such as melon seeds, flowers, fruits, tray of togetherness, and NIANGAO, New Year cakes.
On Christmas Eve, most people who celebrate Christmas also participate I n special holiday rituals in their homes. Families often decorate evergreen Christmas trees and place colorfully wrapped presents beneath them. It is also a popular tradition that decorate the beauty of the starlit for trees with blown-glass ornaments, paper chains, candles and other decorations, which made the simple evergreen tree into a beautiful Christmas tree. On Christmas Day, there are many activities for observation. Exchanging gifts and sending Christmas cards to friends and relatives are the customs of celebrating the Christmas in the world. The card often depicts a family celebration and its caption reads, “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You.” The Santa Claus---from the Dutch Sinter Klaas---was depicted as a tall, dignified, religious figure riding a white horse through the air, delivered toys to all good children. Children often hang stockings, they awake in the morning to find the stocking filled with gifts from Santa Claus.
III. The Differences &The Causes of the Differences
Spring Festival, is formed based on the ancient calendar. According to solar terms and harvest, the date for certain agricultural activities has been fixed. Therefore, the celebration also has close ties with agriculture. Though religions such as Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism play very important role in social life, they never match the far-reaching im pact of agriculture on people’s tendency and thoughts. In China, agriculture is always placed in the first position. Through one year’s toil, people expect a joyful moment to have relaxation, after that they have to start a new round of hard working again. Up to now, in countryside, many antithetical couplets on the farmers’ doors read something like a prayer for a good harvest in the next year.
As mentioned above, people take December 25th as “ Christ” birthday---Christmas Day. Therefore Christmas is a religious festival. Combined with our common sense, we can draw a brief conclusion that religion must play a dominant role in western society. As a matter of fact, the religion is a center of culture and society. People response their mind on religion, meanwhile religion controls people through people’s belief in God or spirit. It is not exaggerated to say that religion is ubiquitous
in all walks of life. And just like the influence of agriculture in China, religion in west is connected with daily life and its impact is obviously to be witnessed in the other festivals, like Easter Day.
Expect the above differences, Spring Festival reflects the feature of the strong localization, whether in its origin or in the way of observation or celebration. The origin is closely related to agriculture. Therefore, the way of observation or celebration is remarked by a lot of agricultural imprint. They are very unique local celebration way of letting off firecrackers, putting on the paper scrolls and having a get-together banquet. On the contrary, Christmas Day is a festival originated from Europe. For the historical reason, the European immigrants moved to America at the same time they brought a batch of European customs, traditions and festivals, including Christmas Day. Consequently, Christmas Day is world-wide, all westerners have this festival.
The effect of history, which in broadest sense, is the totality of all past events. From the long history of China, we can see Chinese culture is deeply rooted in agriculture and the festivals are localized by the agricultural activities. It is definitely decided by the state situation and people’s living
habits in the long history. Spring Festival has close relation with the agricultural activities such as planting and harvest. In fact, other festivals such as Ching Ming and Chong Yang festivals which have not been mentioned in this article are also settled in line with the solar terms and also connected with agriculture. Western culture is structured on the foundation of religion, thus the festivals have strong ties with Christianity. Apart from Christmas Day, the Easter Day is also connected with religion. The religion have an intensive impact on people’s life.
IV. Similarity
Spring Festival and Christmas Day customs reflect the variety of cultures that celebrate the holiday. For some people, Spring Festival is a day related to agriculture, while Christmas Day is primarily a holy day marked by religious services, because of its root of Christianity. However, for most people, gift giving, feasting, and good times are far more prominently than their origins. Perhaps, celebrations in both culture backgrounds enjoy the same harmonious atmosphere of the family reunion. There is one common purpose for people’s activities, that is, to express their pleasure in hearts.
V. Conclusion
Festival is a wonderful part of daily life. During the festivity, the particular and colourful activities preserve the most delicate and representative aspect of national culture. Even though the forms of festivals are various form one another, they all stand for wisdom, experience or a treasure handed down from the ancient people. So we can find the feature of culture through the understanding of the festivals in this country or nation. Festivals belong to a certain nation, and also belong to all the humanbeing. Despite the different origins, backgrounds and social structures, human being always have the same beautiful feeling in pursuit for love and happiness
reflects the feature of the strong localization
very unique local celebration way of letting off firecrackers, putting on the paper scrolls and having a get-together banquet
close relation with the agricultural activities such as planting and harvest
Chinese culture is deeply rooted in agriculture and the festivals are localized by the agricultural activities. It is definitely decided by the state situation and people’s living habits in the long history.
Spring Festival, is formed based on the ancient calendar.
According to solar terms and harvest, the date for certain agricultural activities has been fixed. Therefore, the celebration also has close ties with agriculture. Though religions such as Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism play very important role in social life, they never match the far-reaching impact of agriculture on people’s tendency and thoughts.。