Traditional festivals are actually a kind of folk culture created by people all over the world in order to adapt to the needs of production and life. They are the most important part of the world's folk culture. Chinese Spring Festival is our most important holiday, and Christmas in Western countries is just like our Spring Festival. So, what is the difference between the Chinese Spring Festival and the Western Christmas?
Christmas and Spring Festival are the products of different nations and cultures. One is the Christian etiquette culture, and the other is the folk tradition of the East for thousands of years. Although both create a warm atmosphere in this cold winter season and express gratitude and hope in bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new, the Spring Festival and Christmas are completely different.
From a time point of view: Western New Year's Eve roughly lasts from Christmas to New Year, one week before or after. The Chinese New Year (now known as the Spring Festival) begins when I take a bite of the sticky, fragrant and hot Laba porridge early in the morning, and I can barely hear the footsteps of the new year. The journey of this year is really too long, until the first month of the next year. On the 15th day of the Lantern Festival, it came to an end in the frenzy. Counting it, it lasted forty days.
From the perspective of symbols: the Christmas tree in the Western New Year symbolizes the "Paradise Tree" in the Garden of Eden, which is the tree of life and the tree of eternity. The cookies hanging on the tree symbolize atonement, and the lit candles symbolize Christ. The whole meaning is Gratitude and hope, full of expectations for a good harvest and peace in the new year. During Chinese New Year, bottles and apples represent peace, goldfish represent wealth, melon vines represent hope for children and grandchildren, peaches pray for longevity, wasps and monkeys represent titles and official titles, chickens and chrysanthemums both imply good fortune, and rice cakes can be used to symbolize The whole meaning of "Happiness" expresses the pursuit of joy, auspiciousness, peace, reunion, prosperity, promotion, advancement, abundance, longevity, etc.
From the perspective of expression: Chinese New Year festivals, including food, clothing, housing, transportation, speech and behavior, are all filled with the content, meaning and spirit of the New Year. Not to mention firecrackers, Spring Festival couplets, blessing characters, New Year pictures, hanging money, rice cakes, sugar melons, Lantern Festival, Diabolo, lantern riddles, flower parties, ancestor worship, New Year greetings, New Year's money, cornucopia and other special things in these years, let's just talk about dumplings. What was originally an everyday food becomes extraordinary during the Chinese New Year. From making dumplings and pinching the little man’s mouth to eating reunion dumplings,
They are all deeply imbued with Nian's ideals and Nian's psychology. In this way, all the good food, clothing, fun and good ideas should be focused on the New Year. The reason for working hard to be thrifty on weekdays and spending every year is to make your life closer to the ideal level. The Chinese New Year is the pinnacle of human life, and it is also the dream that everyone, especially children, longs for once a year.
The festival for Westerners, especially for Christians, represents the birth of Jesus. He asked people to lend a helping hand to those in need. In the rush of buying gifts and sending Christmas cards, many Westerners still take time to help others. Christmas provides many opportunities to spread "peace to the world, goodwill to people", such as some church charities, which are a familiar sight to most people who do Christmas shopping.
They usually stand outside shopping malls and shops, collecting donations for the needy and collecting toys and clothes as Christmas gifts for poor families. "Good news" is another traditional way to bring joy to neighbors, especially the elderly and those who cannot go out often. The spirit of Christmas encourages people to help each other in many small and big things.
Habitat for Humanity helps poor people build their own houses. In addition to supporting meaningful causes with money, thousands of Westerners also donate their time to volunteer services in hospitals, homeless homes and schools.
From the perspective of worship: the gods worshiped by the Chinese people, and the folk words "pay tribute" and "burn incense", etc., all instill in people the concept that during festivals, they must worship people or gods who are more powerful than themselves. In other words, what the Chinese worship is life itself. “Getting by” is often seen as a process of survival. When people kowtow and burn incense to the gods in heaven and earth, it is not faith or respect, but hope that the gods will bless the world and lead a beautiful and prosperous life. This is nothing more than wanting to use the power of God to realize their own aspirations. The supreme thing is still life itself.
When talking about the worship of Westerners, let us first think of the three gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh brought by the three dynasties in the Bible when they worshiped the Holy Child. Gold is the king of metals and represents nobility, implying that Jesus is the "King"; frankincense represents sacrifice, implying that Jesus is the "priest"; myrrh is a precious spice, representing dedication, sacrifice and the highest respect, implying that Jesus Christ is the "Priest" of all people. Savior". In other words, what Westerners worship is Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, a Son of God who obtains salvation for human life through the manger, cross, and altar, enjoys eternity, and is blessed with the Lord. This kind of worship is an ideal based on faith in the spirit of the heart, and life itself is just the process of realizing this ideal.
A nation's festival is the birthday of a culture. The inheritance of this culture embodies the cultural psychology of a nation. In the process of idealization and ideal life, all of us are enjoying the romance of Western culture. , gratitude and hope, please don’t forget the festival in our hearts and the true meaning of the Spring Festival.
Post time: Dec-14-2023