内容正文:
Unit 15 A Happy New Year
Background Knowledge
The Spring Festival is the most important festival for the Chinese people and is when all family members get together, just like Christmas in the West. All people living away from home go back, becoming the busiest time for transportation systems of about half a month from the Spring Festival. Airports, railway stations and long-distance bus stations are crowded with home returnees, so transport in this special time is an unavoidable social problem.
Transport during the Spring Festival Period
The Spring Festival falls on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month, often one month later than the Gregorian calendar. It originated in the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 BC-c. 1100 BC) from the people's sacrifice to gods and ancestors at the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one.
The preparing work for Spring Festival starts every year in the early days of the 12th lunar month and will last till the mid 1st lunar month of the next year. Excitement and happiness are palpable this time of the year, and they reach the peak on lunar new year's eve.
Time for celebration
4
On the 8th day of the 12th lunar month, many families make laba porridge, a delicious kind of porridge made with more than 8 kinds of ingredients, such as glutinous rice, millet, seeds of Job‘s tears, jujube berries, lotus seeds, beans, longan and gingko (the ingredient is different from place to place). As a result, we also call this day “Laba Festival”.
Laba Festival
Some large Buddhist temples would offer Laba porridge to general public to show their faith to Buddha.
The 23rd day of the 12th lunar month is called Preliminary Eve. At this time, people offer sacrifice to the kitchen god. Now however, most families make delicious food to enjoy themselves.
Preliminary Eve
After the Preliminary Eve, people begin preparing for the coming New Year. This is called “Seeing the New Year in”.
Store owners are busy then as everybody goes out to purchase necessities for the New Year. Materials not only include edible oil, rice, flour, chicken, duck, fish and meat, but also fruit, candies and kinds of nuts. What's more, various decorations, new clothes and shoes for the children as well as gifts for the elderly, friends and relatives, are all on the list of purchasing.
special purchases for
the Spring Festival
Sweeping the Dust
“Dust” is homophonic with “chen” in Chinese, which means old and past. In this way, “sweeping the dust” before the Spring Festival means a thorough cleaning of houses to sweep away bad luck in the past year. This custom shows a good wish of putting away old things to welcome a new life. In a word, just before the Spring Festival comes, every household will give a thorough cleaning to bid farewell to the old year and usher in the new.
Pasting Spring Couplets
“The Spring Couplet”, also called “couplet” or “a pair of antithetical phrases”, is a special form of literature in China. The Spring Couplet is composed of two antithetical sentences on both sides of the door and a horizontal scroll bearing an inscription, usually an auspicious phrase, above the gate. The sentence pasting on the right side of the door is called the first line of the couplet and the one on the left the second line. On the eve of the Spring Festival, every household will paste on doors a spring couplet written on red paper to give a happy and prosperous atmosphere of the Festival. In the past, the Chinese usually wrote their own spring couplet with a brush or asked others to do for them, while nowadays, it is common for people to buy the printed spring couplet in the market.
Pasting Paper-cuts and “Up-sided Fu”
Paper-cuts, usually with auspicious patterns, give a happy and prosperous atmosphere of the Festival and express the good wishes of Chinese people looking forward to a good life.
In addition to pasting paper-cuts on windows, it is common for Chinese to paste the character “Fu(福)”, big and small, on walls, doors and doorposts around the houses. “Fu(福)” shows people’s yearning toward a good life. Some people even invert the character “Fu(福)” to signify that blessing has arrived because “inverted” is a homonym for “arrive” in Chinese. Now many kinds of paper-cuts and “Fu(福)” can be seen in the market before the Festival.
Pasting New Year Prints
The custom of pasting New Year Prints originated from the tradition of placing Door Gods on the external doors of houses. With the creation of board carvings, New Year paintings cover a wide range of subjects. The most famous ones are Door Gods, Surplus Year after Year, Three Gods of Blessing, Salary and Longevity, An Abundant Harvest of Crops, Thriving Domestic Animals and Celebrating Spring. Now the tradition of pasting New Year paintings is still kept in rural China, while it is seldom followed in cities.
Door Gods
Surplus
Year after Year
Three Gods of Blessing, Salary and Longevity
An Abundant Harvest of Crops
Dinner on the eve
People attach great importance to Spring Festival Eve. At that time, all family members eat dinner together. The meal is more luxurious than usual. Dishes such as chicken, fish and bean curd cannot be excluded, for in Chinese, their pronunciations, respectively "ji", "yu" and "doufu," mean auspiciousness, abundance and richness.
In north of China, the whole family will sit together to make jiaozi and celebrate the Spring Festival. It is a important tradition since they think "jiaozi" in sound means "bidding farewell to the old and ushering in the new". Also, the shape of the dumpling is like gold ingot from ancient China. So people eat them and wish for money and treasure.
Staying Up Late on New Year's Eve
The tradition of staying up late to see New Year in originated from an interesting folk tale.
In ancient China there lived a monster named Year, who was very ferocious. Year always went out from its burrow on New Year’s Eve to devour people. Therefore, on every New Year’s Eve, every household would have supper together. After dinner, no one dared go to sleep and all the family members would sit together, chatting and emboldening each other. Gradually the habit of staying up late on New Year’s Eve is formed. Thus in China, “celebrating the Spring Festival” is also called “passing over the year (guo nian)”.
However, now there are less and less people in cities who stay up late to see New Year in.
The CCTV New Year's Gala
The New Year’s Gala is a variety show held by China Central Television (CCTV) since 1983. For every year since then at the turn of the Lunar New Year, the program begins at 8:00PM and lasts five or six hours. It brings laughter to billions of people, creates many popular words and produces lots of TV phenomena meriting attention. For over twenty years, its value has gone far beyond a variety show. It is essential entertainment for the Chinese both at home and abroad. Many Chinese would like to watch the gala while having the dinner on New Year’s Eve.
Setting off Firecrackers
The firecracker is a unique product in China. In ancient China, the sound of burning bamboo tubes was used to scare away wild animals and evil spirits. With the invention of the gunpowder, “firecracker” is also called “鞭炮biānpào” (“炮” in Chinese means gun) and used to foster a joyful atmosphere. The first thing every Chinese household does is to set off firecrackers and fireworks, which are meant to bid farewell to the old year and usher in the new. It is a very important activity during the Spring Festival.
Breakfast in the new year
Southern Chinese eat niangao (New Year cake made of glutinous rice flour) on this occasion, because as a homophone, niangao means "higher and higher, one year after another."
People in northern China will eat jiaozi, or dumplings, like the dinner of new year’s eve.
New Year's Visit and Gift Money
On the first day of the Chinese lunar year, everybody puts on their best clothes and pays ceremonial calls on their relatives and friends, wishing them all the luck in the coming year. Juniors will greet seniors, wishing them health and longevity, while seniors will give juniors some gift money as a wish for their safety in the coming year. When friends meet, they will wish each other happiness and prosperity with a big smile.
With the development of the new technology, there is a change on the way of giving New Years greetings. In recent year, it is common to send New Years greetings by such modern means of communication as telephones, emails and text messages.
Temple Fair
Temple fair, usually held outside temples, is a kind of folk custom in China. During the Spring Festival, temple fair is one of the most important activities in someplace of China, in which there are such performances as acrobatics and Kongfu, numerous kinds of local snacks and many kinds of things for everyday life .
In recent years, the temple fair has become a place for people to appreciate the traditional art and experience the traditional life .
Lantern Festival
The Lantern Festival is another important festival, which falls on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, however, many people take it as the end of Spring Festival.
People will eat yuanxiao, or rice dumplings, on this day, so it is also called the "Yuanxiao Festival."Yuanxiao also has another name, tangyuan. It is small dumpling balls made of glutinous rice flour with rose petals, sesame, bean
paste, jujube paste, walnut meat, dried fruit, sugar
and edible oil as filling. Tangyuan can be boiled, fried
or steamed. It tastes
sweet and delicious.
What's more, tangyuan
in Chinese has a similar
pronunciation with
"tuanyuan”, meaning
reunion. So people eat
them to denote union,
harmony and happiness
for the family.
This day's important activity is watching lanterns. Lanterns of various shapes and sizes are hung in the streets, attracting countless visitors. Children will hold self-made or bought lanterns to stroll with on the streets, extremely excited.
Activity of Lantern Festival
On the night, except for magnificent lanterns, fireworks form a beautiful scene. Most families spare some fireworks from the Spring Festival and let them off in the Lantern Festival. Some local governments will even organize a fireworks party. On the night when the first full moon enters the New Year, people become really intoxicated by the imposing fireworks and bright moon in the sky.
Activity of Lantern Festival
1.--What can you get(得到) on New
Year Day?
2.What can you do on New
Year Day?
--I can get a ...
--I can watch TV, read books, go roller-skating...
presents
here!
--What are they doing?
--They are fishing.
fishing
--What are they doing?
making words
--They are making words.
Let's make words:
a b g
o b o k
l m e o n
s i r k t
s t i r h
d e r s s
--What are they doing?
--They are making a good shot.
making a good shot.
golden finger
making a good shot.
making words
presents
fishing
--What are they doing?
--They are gussing riddles.
gussing riddles
Let's guess riddles
ball
kite
shoes
hat
cap
bookcase
cup
bed
eyes
--What are they doing?
--They are playing a gussing game.
playing a gussing game
--What are they doing?
--They are singing.
singing
--What are they doing?
--They are blowing balloons.
blowing balloons
Blowing Balloon PK
blowing balloons
singing
playing a gussing game
gussing riddles
Wooden Person
Today is New Year Day . We all get _______.
We are very happy and play many games.
Look, Tom and Nick are making words.
Lily and Summer are_____________
Jack and Leo are______________
Jason and Tom are_____________
Nick and Cathy are____________
Mike and Eric are________
Amy and Bob are_____________
Happy New Year Day
presents
guessing riddles.
playing guessing game.
singing
blowing balloons.
fishing
making a good shot
___
Happy New Year Day!
Listen and Learn:
QUESTIONS:
1.--Where is Ann going?
2. --How is she going there?
--He/She is going to_Shanghai_
--By plane
helicopter
a New Year Card
Let's make
To Dear Mother:
Happy New Year Day!
Pat
Homework
Listen & Read: Unit 15 part 1,4
Write& Read: Happy New Year Day
Pairwork: Find a word about New Year Day
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