中西方传统节日的文化差异
摘要：传统节日是一个民族发展的历史产物。节日的由来与人们的生活方式和习俗有密切的联系，它寄托了人们对生活的热爱，对美好生活的期望。要了解一个民族的文化底蕴，必须从他们的传统节日出发，这是一个民族的精神和信仰的凝聚。不同国家的传统节日反映着不同的文化背景。通过传统节日可以看到不同民族的宗教信仰差异、价值取向，以及不同的饮食内容、饮食文化以及庆祝方式。了解了中西文化的差异，将有助于不同民族文化的相互融合。
关键词：传统节日；中西文化；文化差异 ；相互融合
Culture Differences of Chinese and Western
Traditional Festivals
Abstract: Traditional Festivals are the historical product of a nation’s development. The origin of the festival is closely related to people’s way of life and customs. It aspires to the love of life and the expectation of a better life. To understand a nation's cultural heritage, we must proceed from their traditional festivals, which is the cohesion of a nation's spirit and belief. Traditional festivals in different countries reflect different cultural backgrounds. Through the traditional festivals, you can find different nationalities have many differences, such as religious belief, value orientation, diet content, dietaries culture and the way of celebration. After we understand the culture differences between China and the west, it is helpful to the integration of different nationalities.
Key words: Traditional Festivals; Chinese and Western culture; Cultural differences; Integration
Contents
1 Introduction 1
1.1 The origin and differences of China and the west 1
2 A comparative study of Chinese and Western Traditional Festivals 1
2.1 The Spring Festival and Christmas Day 2
2.2 Halloween and Hungry Ghost Festival 2
2.3 The Chinese Valentine’s Day and the Western Valentine’s Day 3
3 Cultural differences between Chinese and Western Traditional Festivals 4
3.1 Different value orientations between Chinese and Western Traditional 4
3.2 Different contents of diet between Chinese and Western Traditional Festivals 6
3.3 Different dietary culture between Chinese and Western Traditional Festivals 6
3.4 Different ways of celebrating between Chinese and Western Traditional Festivals 8
4 Cultural fusion between Chinese and Western Traditional Festivals 8
5 Conclusion. 9
1 Introduction
1.1 The origin and differences of China and the west
China has been in a self-sufficiency feudal society and natural economy for a long time, so the traditional festivals will have a rich agricultural atmosphere, including the social characteristics of agricultural civilization. In China, most of traditional festivals are connected with seasons which have great influence on agriculture. When our agricultural technology was underdeveloped, people paid attention to the effects of climate on crops. In the alternation of four seasons, the complex laws of natural time series were recognized, and the four and twenty-four solar terms were summarized. Therefore, traditional festivals with festivals as the main part have been formed. As one of the great advantages of the Chinese people, industriousness enhances the development of agriculture in order to live a better life, and the development of agriculture is closely related to the weather. In the past, the Spring Festival was an important agricultural festival.
In Western countries, social culture is centered on religion, which reflects people’s thoughts. At the same time, religion controls people by human belief in God and spirit. Because most Westerners believe in religion, the origin of Western culture is mostly related to religion, such as Valentine’s Day, Halloween Day and Christmas Day. The origin of these festivals is related to the religion. Obviously, all works of life have their own religious beliefs. Therefore, the derivation of festivals and Christianity are inextricably linked. In most traditional Western festivals, 38 are associated with Christianity. As a result, religion-related words have emerged in the world’s common language. It can be concluded that religion has a great influence on Western culture. Of course, there are some festivals which are related to agriculture in the western festivals, but their agricultural holidays are not as long as those in China.
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