Celebrate new year ESL156 Comparative Culture Studies Presenter: Liwei Geng (Jim) Instructor: Lyra Riabov September 21 2006

Outline Reference Introduction of China and Chinese culture Conclusion Compare Chinese and American ways of celebrating New Year A. people’s food B. people’s activities Reference Conclusion

Introduction of China and Chinese culture China is the most populated country in the world. It is the third in the size of land area It has 5, 000 years of history. China has various cultures. The culture includes food, art, literature and festivals.

Compare Chinese and American ways of celebrating the New Year As we know, Americans celebrate new year at Christmas. But in China we celebrate New Year at Lunar calendar New Year, so it is later than American. In China, at the eve of New Year, people come back to their homes to have supper together. The supper means reunion dinner and people must eat dumplings Eating dumplings has several meanings. Dumpling looks like ancient money, so it means that everyone who eats dumpling can get rich. In Chinese , the pronunciation of dumpling and union are similar. So eating dumpling represents reunion of the whole family.

Compare Chinese and American ways of celebrating New Year After supper, people go outside to set off the firecrackers. There was a monster called “Nian”, it used to spoil everything at junction of the old and New Year, but it was afraid of huge sound and red color, so people set off firecrackers and paste red paper at the door to bless safety in New Year, So this custom has been spreading until now. Second day , the elders will give money packaged in red paper. As there was a monster called “Sui ” in ancient time. It hurt children. So one time a couple put packaged money into red paper under the pillow. When the monster prepared to hurt their child, the money emitted a ray to oust the monster. So until now people have been doing it to bless children’s safety for whole year.

Compare Chinese and American ways of celebrating New Year In America the traditional Christmas dinner is roast turkey with vegetables and sauces. For dessert it is rich, fruity Christmas pudding with brandy sauce. Mince pies, pastry cases filled with a mixture of chopped dried fruit. The majority of Americans celebrate Christmas with the exchange of gifts and greetings and with family visits. For many, the day begins on Christmas Eve with the Midnight Mass. At Christmas it snows in many states, so dinner is usually eaten indoors. Dinner usually is roast turkey, goose, duck or ham served with cranberry sauce, then plum pudding or pumpkin pie followed by nuts and fruit.

Conclusion My intention to compare the festival culture of two countries is better to show each country characteristic. Some parts are similar, some parts are dissimilar, but any people’s activities expresses they love life. I think each country has individual culture, and each culture is our treasure.

Reference http://image.baidu.com/i?ct=201326592&cl=2&lm=-1&tn=baiduimage&pv=&word=%CD%C5%D4%B2%B7%B9&z=0 http://www.santas.net/aroundtheworld.htm http://www.soon.org.uk/christmas.htm http://www.douban.com/group/topic/1026234/ http://www.xxinfo.ha.cn/jieri/newyear/shihua/shihua4.htm http://www.sdau.edu.cn/chunjie/xz.html