趣談英國文化：爲什麼聖誕節要戴紙帽子
聖誕節戴紙帽子是英國特有的聖誕習俗。聖誕節當天，全英國的家庭都會坐在餐桌前，吃一頓傳統的聖誕大餐。同時，無論年齡老幼，所有人都會在頭上戴一頂彩色紙做成的紙帽子。據說，就連伊莉莎白女王在這一天也會戴紙帽子哦!
爲什麼英國人聖誕節要戴紙帽子?
聖誕節當天，全英國的家庭都會坐在餐桌前，吃一頓傳統的聖誕大餐，塞滿了各種餡料的烤火雞。無論年齡老幼，所有人都會在頭上戴一頂彩色紙做成的紙帽子。據說，就連伊莉莎白女王也會戴紙帽子哦!
那爲什麼會有這個古怪的傳統呢?戴紙帽子的傳統來源於哪裏?答案就在另一項聖誕傳統活動——聖誕拉炮!
聖誕拉炮是用硬紙板做的紙筒，再用色彩鮮豔的彩紙包裹在外面，兩端擰緊。在拉炮裏會有一個爆竹，當兩個人拉動拉炮兩端時，拉炮裏的兩條浸漬紙就會發生摩擦，發出“嘣”的響聲。
拉炮裏會裝有紙做的皇冠、寫在紙上的名言或笑話，還會有一些小禮物。
聖誕拉炮成爲英國傳統的歷史可以追溯到維多利亞時期，約在19世紀50年代早期，倫敦的一個糖果商湯姆-史密斯把寫有名言的紙片放在了他售賣的糖果包裝裏，包裝方式就是在糖果外用紙將兩頭擰緊。
到了20世紀初，紙帽子也被放到了聖誕拉炮裏。很快，拉炮就成了英國人過聖誕節的傳統習俗。現在，所有的英國家庭至少都會準備一盒拉炮留到聖誕節時來拉響。
Why do the British wear paper hats at Christmas lunch?
All over Britain on Christmas Day, families can be found sitting around their dining tables enjoying a traditional lunch of roast turkey with all the trimmings - and all, regardless of age, wearing coloured paper hats. It is rumoured that even the Queen wears her paper hat over lunch!
So why this quaint tradition? Where do these paper hats come from? The answer is the Christmas Cracker.
A Christmas Cracker is a cardboard paper tube, wrapped in brightly coloured paper and twisted at both ends. There is a banger inside the cracker, two strips of chemically impregnated paperthat react with friction so that when the cracker is pulled apart by two people, the cracker makes a bang.
Inside the cracker there is a paper crown made from tissue paper, a motto or joke on a slip of paper and a little gift.
Christmas crackers are a British tradition dating back to Victorian times when in the early 1850s, London confectioner Tom Smith started adding a motto to his sugared almond bon-bons which he sold wrapped in a twisted paper package.
The paper hat was added to the cracker in the early 1900s. The cracker was soon adopted as a traditional festive custom and today virtually every household has at least one box of crackers to pull over Christmas.
