西方传统节日及习俗

Christmas：The name Christmas is short for "Christ's Mass". A Mass is a kind of Church service. Christmas is a religious festival. It is the day we celebrate as the birthday of Jesus. Exchanging gifts and sending Christmas cards are the modern ways of celebrating the Christmas in the world. This conception of Santa Claus was produced for them by Haddon Sundblom, who built on the character and costume created by Thomas Nast to produce a cheery, chubby fellow that is still a familiar perception of the mythical Christmas character to millions of people throughout the Western world. 19世纪60年代卡通制作者Thomas Nash画了一幅胖胖的、慈祥的圣诞老人作为《Harper的一周》的插图。这个圣诞老人的形象开始深深地扎根于美国人民的脑海中。随着时间的推移，圣诞老人的形象传回欧洲，传到南美洲，传遍世界各地。

A beautifully decorated evergreen tree, with colored lights ablaze inspires in many warm memories of Christmases long past. The Christmas tree has become one of the most beloved and well know holiday symbols.

The tradition of a holiday tree has been around since ancient times and has played an important part in winter celebrations for many centuries. Many pagan festivals used trees when honoring their gods and spirits. In Northern Europe the Vikings considered the evergreen a symbol and reminder that the darkness and cold of winter would end and the green of spring would return. The Druids of ancient England and France decorated oak trees with fruit and candles to honor their gods of harvests. At the festival Saturnalia the Romans decorated trees with trinkets and candles.

圣诞树一直是庆祝圣诞节不可少的装饰物，如果家中没有圣诞树，就大大减少了过节气氛。关于圣诞树的来源有多种不同的传说。其中一个是说：大约在十六世纪，圣诞树最先出现在德国，德国人把长青的松柏枝拿到屋中去摆设，将之成为圣诞树。后来，由德国人马丁路德把蜡烛放在树林中的枞树枝上，然后点燃蜡烛，使它看起来像是引导人们到伯利恒去。而今日，人们已经改用粉色的小灯泡了。

St Valentine's Day is celebrated on February 14 of each year, the reason why it is celebr ated on this day is because this was the day that the Patron Saint of Lovers "St Valentin e" was supposedly executed on. On this day lovers all around the world mark this occasi on as a day for sending poems, cards, flowers or candy, etc. They might also be a social gathering or ball to mark the occasion.

Many Valentine's Day customs involved ways that single women could learn who their future husbands would be. Englishwomen of the 1700's wrote men's names on scraps of paper, rolled each in a little piece of clay, and dropped them all into water. The first pap er that rose to the surface supposedly had the name of a woman's true love.

Also in the 1700's, unmarried women pinned five bay leaves to their pillows on the ev e of Valentine's Day. They pinned one leaf to the center of the pillow and one to each c orner. If the charm worked, they saw their future husbands in their dreams.

One of the oldest customs was the practice of writing women's names on slips of pape r and drawing them from a jar. The woman whose name was drawn by a man became hi s valentine, and he paid special attention to her. Many men gave gifts to their valentines. In some areas, a young man gave his valentine a pair of gloves. Wealthy men gave fanc y balls to honor their valentines.

Valentine cards became popular in Great Britain in the nineteenth century. Noted artist Kate Greenaway created cards which featured joyful children and beautiful gardens. Esther Howland was one of the first Valentine card manufacturers in the United States. Inspired by a British card, she began production in 1847. Her cards featured lace and paper flow ers and leaves. Other card manufacturers emphasized

Cupid, the pudgy, winged son of Venus, the goddess of love. In Roman lore, Cupid is known as Eros, the son of Aphrodite.

In the United States and Canada, children exchange valentines with their friends. In so me schools, the children hold a classroom party and put all the valentines into a box they have decorated. At the end of the day, the teacher or one child distributes the cards. Ma ny children make their own valentines from paper doilies, red paper, wallpaper samples, a