Acknowledgements

I wish to express my thanks and appreciation to my tutor, Miss Yang Yingchun, whose careful reading and suggestions have been invaluable to me throughout my thesis writing. My thanks should also be given to all the teachers who have taught me my BA courses. Without their enthusiasm and support, this work would not have been possible.

I am also grateful to my classmates and roommates for their psychological support and encouragement.

Abstract

Culture is the soul carrier of human being, is the core of one country. Different countries have different cultures. Festival, which reflects the most delicate and representative respect of culture, is the essence of human’s daily life. Being comparing American Christmas with Chinese New Year, Thanks Giving Day with Mid-autumn Festival, Valentines’ Day with Double-Seventh Day, Halloween with Tomb Sweeping Day and Easter with Dragon Boat Festival, we find out cultural differences between China and America. Thus, we know different cultures and histories and environments will result in different festivals and reflect different social values in different countries, which have a great influence on people’s mind and behavior. It is convenient to absorb the outstanding foreign cultures sensibly by summarizing the differences, in order to protect and promote the cultural essence of the Chinese nation. This article first elaborates the cultures from different five aspects on the Chinese festivals and American holidays. In order to expound the effect of cultural in both countries’ commerce activity, we analyse both countries’ core culture values, consanguinity, their manner towards love, the educational mode and memorial service from a cultural angle. Nowadays, by generally accepted, the culture is one kind of soft strength, and only using it in positive way can minimizes losses and reduce the nonessential misunderstanding and friction and gains the victory in the Chinese and American intercultural communication. The culture is the double-edged sword, only has danced this sword well, can both countries’ activities mutually benefits and develop harmonious.

Comparing the Chinese festivals culture with the American festivals culture, we can get a conclusion that the main factors of the culture are religion, value and material, people’s daily behavior code of conduct and the custom which accumulated over a long period. These factors mutually affect each others. What is more, from the comparison, we have got another conclusion: only treating the foreign culture rationally and absorbing the essence and discarding the dross of the culture discrepancies, can one make full use of the advanced culture of the foreign countries and make a great progress in his cross culture ability.

Key Words: discrepancies social values Chinese history and culture Chinese festivals American history and culture American holidays

摘 要

文化是人类灵魂的载体，是一个国家的核心。不同的国家拥有不同的文化。节日是人类日常生活的浓缩和精华，反映出一个民族文化中最精致，最具有代表性的一面。我们拿美国的圣诞节，感恩节，圣瓦伦丁节，万圣节，复活节和中国的新年，中秋节，清明节，端午节，七夕节五个节日作对比，从而我们能够发现中美不同的文化。我们能知道不同的历史，文化导致了节假日风俗的差异，揭示了不同的价值观念。这些价值观念也能影响人们的思维和行为。

研究差异有助于更好的较理性的借鉴和吸取外来文化中的优秀成果，借鉴西方人的积极价值观，保护和弘扬中华民族的文化精髓。本文首先从不同的五个方面来论述比较美国和中国的节假日，并做具体比较，然后从文化角度比较分析两国的核心文化价值观，血缘观，对爱的追求方式，教育方式以及悼念方式等方面的差异，来阐明文化在两国具体生活中的影响。 当今世界，文化已经被默认为一种软实力，只有积极的利用它趋利避害才能在中美跨文化交际上减少不必要的摩擦和误解。

文化是把双刃刀，只有舞好这把剑，中美双方才能在两国的交际活动中互惠互利，和谐发展。在对节假日文化的详细比较中，我们不难看出对文化具有影响的几个主要因素：宗教，物质和价值观，行为准则以及在节假日中沉淀下来的风俗。 这几个因素相互影响，相互作用。也通过比较分析，我们最终得出一个结论：理性的对待文化差异，充分运用国外先进文化，吸取精华，弃其糟粕，只有这样才能更好的提高跨文化交际能力。

关键词：差异 社会价值观 中国历史文化 美国历史文化

中国节日 美国节日

Contents

Acknowledgements i

Abstract（English） ii

Abstract(Chinese) iv

Contents vi

1.Introduction 1

2. Festivals are the cream of life 1

2.1 The typical festival: Spring Festival and Christmas 2

2.1.1 Overview 2

2.1.2 Culture diversities: consanguinity influence on the family 3

2.2 Mid-autumn Day and Thanks Giving Day 5

2.2.1 Overview 5

2.2.2 Culture diversities: the way to express thanks 7

2.3 Double-seventh’s Day and Valentine’s Day 8

2.3.1 Overview 8

2.3.2 Culture diversities: manner towards love 9

2.4 Tomb Sweeping Day and Halloween 10

2.4.1 Overview 10

2.4.2 Culture diversities: educational mode 11

2.5 Dragon Boat Festival and Easter 13

2.5.1 Overview 13

2.5.2 Culture diversities: memorial service 14

3. Culture influence on the different between China and America 15

3.1 The religion influence on the festival culture 15

3.2 Values and materials influence on the festival culture 16

3.3 Code of conduct influence on the festival culture 17

3.4 The custom influence on the festival culture 18

4. Conclusion 19

References 21

A Comparative Study of Chinese Festivals and American Holidays

1. Introduction

Men not only need food and material for survival, they also require a spiritual prop in their lives. They have tried a lot, but these all fell into pieces for the limited of the subjective and objective factors. Thus, human beings have to find another way out to keep a balance between the nice dream and the hard practice. Festival is one of the ways they balanced themselves. No matter where you are, or no matter what kind of people you are, festivals survive in your daily life.

For human being, religion has been an important part of culture and history. Everywhere in the world has the trace of religion, China and America are not the exception. About one third American people are Christians; many important holidays are based on the religion, which reflects that the influence of the religion on American culture is rather deep. This thesis will introduce some American holidays and Chinese festivals, and then analyze the cultural differences between China and America, which would help us to improve the ability of cross-culture communication.

2. Festivals are the cream of life

Culture is the core of one country. Different countries have different cultures. Festival, which reflects the most delicate and representative respect of culture, is the essence of human’s daily life. Being comparing American Christmas with Chinese New Year, Thanks Giving Day with Mid-autumn Festival, Valentines’ Day with Double-Seventh Day, Halloween with Tomb Sweeping Day and Easter with Dragon Boat Festival, we find out cultural differences between China and America.

2.1 The typical festival: Spring Festival and Christmas

Both Chinese Spring Festival and American Christmas are the most important festivals in China and western countries, and it is a typical exploration of the cultural differences between the Chinese and western festivals. They mainly mark the end of the past year and the beginning of a new year. If Chinese New Year is the most joyous festival in China, Christmas is the merriest and most loved holiday in the United States.

2.1.1 Overview

It is said that the spring festival evolved from an activity known as the Winter Sacrifice. It was a custom practice by the people of primitive society. New Year’s Eve is the most important time for the family. Every member is present at the New Year’s Eve feast. Traditional festival food is served, such as whole chicken symbolizing family reunion and whole fish representing surplus in family income. Usually children get lucky money from their parents and grandparents, which are believed to bring good fortune to the children. They explode on New Year’s Eve to scare away the evil spirits and sweep out what is old; they also lit up fireworks in Chinese lunar New Year’s Day to welcome the new coming year. It is believed that dragon and lion dances are also performed to ward off evil sprits and bring in wisdom, power and wealth in the year to come (Net. 1).

On the first day of Chinese lunar New Year’s Day, visiting begins. It is traditional for married couples to visit their parents first, and perhaps have lunch or dinner with them. Many people also visit their close friends or relatives in the afternoon. Throughout the festivals, friends and relatives keep coming and going, catching up on what they had not been able to share in the past year. In this sense, Spring Festival, the Chinese lunar New Year, is a festival for family reunion and gathering of friends.

As to the Christmas in America, it is on December 25-exactly one week before New Year’s Day. Christmas, a religious day is observed in Christian countries to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Green Wreaths and poinsettia-red ribbons are put up on the doors of buildings and houses. Stores are filled with people buying Christmas cards and gifts for families and friends (Peng Ying, 2002).

On Christmas Eve, most families gather around to trim their Christmas trees. Young people get together and go out to sing carols in church activities in the morning and have family dinner in the evening. Perhaps the most joyful event on Christmas is giving and getting gifts. The legend about this custom says that Santa Claus, an old man, loads the toys into a sled and slides down the chimney of each house to put gifts under Christmas tree or into their stockings which are hung by the children on Christmas Eve.

2.1.2 Culture diversities: consanguinity influence on the family

Consanguinity have different influence on different country, the society is the representative of the consanguinity influence. One can see that a lot of American people run in the streets, cheer and squeeze tightly with strangers, celebrate the festivals wildly with the strangers. But you never see this kind of view in China.

For the Chinese, mutual dependence is the essence of all personal relationships, whereby compliance and subordination of one’s will to that of the family and kin are of paramount importance. So when the spring festival is near, a lot of people will put down their work and crown to the train station, take on the train back to home, no matter how far they are away from home. And that is also why New Year’s Eve is the most important time for the Chinese family. And this festival is for their family, their relatives and friends, not with the strangers. The core of Confucius’ opinions is the “Xiao”, that meant perform one’s filial duty. In the daily life, the adult children must show their filial respect to their parents and so did his children. What is more, in the old society, the official and subjects of a feudal ruler should obey the monarch, and the “Xiao” serves the“Zhong”. Therefore, “Xiao” is encouraged by the monarchs. In this way, the nature Consanguinity and the advocate of the ruler have run deep into Chinese people’s heart.

While in America, it seems to be quite a different story, the influence on the family from the consanguinity is quite small. A lot of American parents envy the Chinese parents’ good luck and happiness which are from their children and grandchildren. As to the Americans, individualism, competition and winning are core values of the U.S. society. That is to say the great influence of the American family and society is the competition and individualism, instead of the consanguinity and family member dependence. American children are rather independent, covering college tuition on a loan with their parents. They have not been trained to see themselves as members of a close-knit, interdependent family, religious group, tribe, nation, or other collectivity. The American adult children live alone and create lives that are separate and will pay for the meal if they go back to their parent’s home to have dinner. This is not meaning that American does not care about their family and their relatives. The differences between America and China are that American adult children may be thought to be “immature”, “tied to the mother’s apron strings”, or otherwise unable to lead a normal independent life, their parents will also feel ashamed for their children, if the adult children can not live independently.

英语论文-A Comparative Study of Chinese Festivals and American Holidays