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Mid-autumn FestivalThe Mid-Autumn Festival (Chinese Moon Festival) is an important traditional festivity second only to the Spring Festival.
Celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month in Chinese lunar calendar, the Moon Festival usually comes sometime between the second week of September and the second week of October.
Mid-Autumn day is a time when people celebrate the harvest, enjoy the getting-together with families and friends and appreciate good food and the most beautiful moon.
Chinese ancestors took the seventh, eighth and ninth lunar months as autumn and 15th day of the eighth lunar month as the Moon Day which was considered the best day of the year to enjoy the beautiful, round and bright moon.
A harvest festival, Moon Day is a time for relaxation and celebration and most importantly, reunion of families. In the past, food offerings were placed on an altar set up in the courtyard. Special food for the festival included moon cakes and cooked taro, edible snails from the taro patches or rice paddies cooked with sweet basil, and water caltrope, a type of water chestnut resembling black buffalo horns. Some people insisted that cooked taro be included because at the time of creation, taro was the first food discovered at night in the moonlight.
Tradition
The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festivity for both the Han and minority nationalities. The custom of worshipping the moon can be traced back as far as the ancient Xia and Shang Dynasties (2000 B.C.-1066 B.C.). In the Zhou Dynasty (1066 B.C.-221 B.C.), people held ceremonies to greet winter and worshiped the moon whenever the Mid-Autumn Festival set in. It became prevalent in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.) that people enjoyed and worshiped the full moon. In the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279 A.D.), however, people sent round moon cakes to their relatives as gifts in expression of their best wishes of family reunion. At night they looked up at the full silver moon or went sightseeing to celebrate the festival. Since the Ming (1368-1644 A.D. ) and Qing Dynasties (1644-1911A.D.), the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival celebration became unprecedented popular. Together with the celebration there appeared some special customs in different parts of the country, such as burning incense, planting Mid-Autumn trees, lighting Lanterns on towers and fire dragon dances. What is worth mentioning is that the Yuetan Park in the western district of Beijing, was originally the Temple of Moon, and every year, the emperor would go there to offer a sacrifice to the moon.
In mid-autumn farmers had just finished gathering their crops and bringing in fruits from the orchards. They were overwhelmed with joy when they have a harvest and at the same time they felt quite relaxed after a year of hard work. So the 15th Day of the eighth lunar month has gradually evolved as a widely celebrated festival for ordinary people. When the night falls, the land is bathed in silver moonlight. Families set up tables in their courtyards or sit together on their balconies chatting and sharing offerings to the moon. Together they enjoy the spell of night.
Moon Cake
Moon cake also has a story. During the Yuan dynasty (A.D.1280-1368) China was ruled by the Mongolian people. Leaders from the preceding Sung dynasty (A.D.960-1280) were unhappy at submitting to foreign rule, and set how to coordinate the rebellion without it being discovered. The leaders of the rebellion, knowing that the Moon Festival was drawing near, ordered the making of special cakes. Contained in each moon cake was a message with the outline of the attack. On the night of the Moon Festival, the rebels successfully attacked and overthrew the government. What followed was the establishment of the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644). Today, moon cakes are eaten to commemorate this legend.
The round moon cakes, traditionally about three inches in diameter and one and a half inches in thickness, resembled Western fruitcakes in taste and consistency. These cakes were made with melon seeds, lotus seeds, almonds, minced meats, bean paste, orange peels and lard. A golden yolk from a salted duck egg was placed at the center of each cake, and the golden brown crust was decorated with symbols of the festival. 13 moon cakes were piled in a pyramid to symbolize the thirteen moons of a "complete year", that is, twelve moons plus one intercalary moon.
Moon View
A moon view is a must in the Mid-Autumn Festival when the moon is especially round and bright. If the weather remains fine, people will be able to see a full moon on Mid-autumn day astronomers say. A full moon usually falls on the 16th day of a lunar month, instead of the 15th day. The moon will appear at its fullest when it is most closely aligned with the earth and the sun. It takes about 29.5 days for the three celestial bodies to be approximately aligned. The next time for such a fullest moon will be September 19, 2013.
[ 本帖最后由 patty-chu 于 2011-8-23 11:51 编辑 ]
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Dragon boat festival 划龙舟英文介绍
Another festival, commonly called the Fifth Moon Festival, is celebrated on the fifth day of the lunar fifth month. The proper name for this festival was the Upright Sun Festival, but foreigners in China refer to it as the Dragon-Boat Festival.
The Fifth Moon Festival is also noted for its dragon-boat races, especially in the southern provinces, where there are many rivers and lakes. This regatta commemorated the death of Qu Yuan, an honest minister in the old days who was said to have committed suicide by drowning himself in a river.
Qu Yuan was a minister in the kingdom of Chu situated in present-day Hunan and Hubei provinces, during the Warring States period (475 -221 BC). He was upright, loyal and highly esteemed for his wise counsel that had brought peace and prosperity to the kingdom. However, when a dishonest and corrupt prince vilified Qu Yuan, he was disgraced and dismissed from his office. Realizing that the country was now in the hands of evil and corrupt officials, Qu Yuan clasped a large stone and leaped into the Mi Lo river on the fifth day of the fifth moon. Nearby fishermen rushed over and tried to save him, but they were unable even to recover his body. Thereafter, the kingdom declined and was eventually conquered by the kingdom of Qin
The people of Chu, mourning the death of Qu Yuan, threw rice into the river to feed his hungry ghost every year on the fifth day of the fifth moon. One year, according to the legend, the spirit of Qu Yuan appeared and told the mourners that a huge reptile in the river had stolen the rice that had been offered. The spirit advised them to wrap the rice in silk and bind it with five different colored threads before tossing it into the river.
On the Fifth Moon Festival, a glutinous rice pudding called Zongzi was eaten to symbolize the rice offerings to Qu Yuan. Ingredients such as beans, lotus seeds, chestnuts, pork fat and the golden yolk of a salted duck egg were often added to the glutinous rice. The pudding was wrapped with bamboo leaves, bound with a sort of raffia and boiled in salt water for hours.
The dragon-boat races represented the attempts to rescue and recover the body of Qu Yuan. A dragon-boat ranged from fifty to one hundred feet in length with a beam of about five and a half feet, accommodating two paddlers sitting side by side. A wooden dragonhead was attached at the bow, and a dragon tail at the stern. A banner hoisted on a pole was also fastened at the stern. The hull was decorated with a design of red, green and blue scales edged in gold. In the center of the boat was a canopied shrine. Behind the shrine sat drummers, gong-beaters and cymbal-crashers that would set the pace for the paddlers. Men standing at the bow set off firecrackers, tossed rice into the water and made believe they were looking for Qu Yuan. All the noise and pageantry created an atmosphere of gaiety and excitement for the participants and spectators. Competitions were held between different clans, villages and organizations, and winners were awarded medals, banners, jugs of wine and festive meals.
After the races, the wooden head and tail of the dragon were detached and stored either at the clan headquarters or at the local temple. The hull was buried in the muddy river to prevent cracking, warping and shrinkage. The boats were therefore reconditioned annually before the festival.
[ 本帖最后由 xcfirst 于 2007-8-1 16:15 编辑 ]
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The Lantern Festival元宵节英文介绍
On the 15th of the lst lunar month, they're in the Lantern Festival. In the streets, big and small, and in every family, beautiful festival lanterns are decorated. The public places like Zhongshan park and temples etc, hold celebrating activities of performing dragon dance, lion dance, walking on stilts, running artificial boats, letting off fireworks, welcoming Goddess Zigu and eating sweet dumplings. During the night, the transparent palace lanterns merry-go-round lanterns (a lantern on the top band of which are decorative figures revolving as the hot air ascends), Baolian lanterns, lotus shape lanterns and elephant shape lanterns shed dazzling brightness in all directions On the surface of the lake, lantern boats row, splendidly attired girls and children perform joyful festive lantern dance. On the streets, the stilt tram strides magnificently making a grand spectacle.
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呵呵，学习呀！LZ加油！
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呵呵 ,写的真好,学习中
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咋没人顶呢？ 顶一个先..............
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狂顶啊！！！！ :lol :lol :lol :lol
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嘿嘿，谢谢了，整理摘要一下发给客人，刚好快到中秋了
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蛮有意思的，谢谢分享
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