中英雙語話中國民風民俗 第51期:人們過春節時的活動

What Would People Do in Spring Festival

人們過春節時的活動

The Spring Festival like Christmas Day in the western countries, is the most important festival in China. Children like it very much because they can have delicious things to eat, pretty clothes to wear and many nice things to play with. When Spring Festival comes，people away from their hometowns usually come back and spend it with their families. People mainly do two things during the festival. One is eating, and the other is playing. They usually buy different kinds of food and make different kinds of delicious dishes, and play in different ways.

春節像在西方國家的聖誕節，是中國最重要的節日。孩子們非常喜歡它，因爲他們可以有好吃的東西吃，有漂亮的衣服穿，有很多好玩的東西玩。當春節來臨時，人遠離自己的家鄉，通常回來與家人團聚。人們主要在節日期間做兩件事情。其中之一是吃，另一個是玩。他們通常購買不同種類的食物，做不同種類的美味佳餚，並以不同的方式玩。

In the spirit of setting things straight,all account books should be balanced, debts paid off, and houses cleaned before New Year's Day. Then houses,businesses,and streets are decked and draped with banners,flowers, and scrolls of vivid red, a traditionally lucky and demon-dispelling hue. People exchange red-wrapped gifts, most commonly the hong bao—cash enclosed in a compact red paper packet—and offer their friends propitious edibles such as red dates (whose Chinese name,hong zao,sounds like the words for "prosperity comes soon") and tangerines (whose Cantonese pronunciation,kat,sounds like that of the word for "lucky"）

本着使一切順利的精神，所有賬冊應該是平衡的，元旦前還清債務，清理房屋。接着房屋，企業和街道掛滿橫幅、鮮花、生動的紅色、傳統的幸運與辟邪的色彩。人們交換紅色包裹的禮品，最常見的是紅包——在一張壓縮的紅紙裏包着現金，並提供他們的朋友吉利的零嘴，如紅棗（他的中國名字是紅棗，聽起來像字“福樂即將來到”）和柑橘（其粵語發音，吉，這個詞聽起來像“幸運”）