-
元旦的英文简介：
Yuandan
is
the
first
day
of
the
lunar
calendar.
It
is
the
day
when
the
earth
has
circled
the
sun
for
one
round
and
is
beginning
another
circling.
It
repr
esents
a
new
beginning
when
people
send
off
the
old
days
and
welcome
t
he
new
ones.
As
the
first
day
of
the
year,
Yuandan
has
been
considered
t
o
be
the
most
important
festival
since
the
ancient
times.
Customs
1.
Kaisui(beginning
of
the
year):
According
to
the
Chinese
traditional
custom,
starting
from
haishi(9p.m.
to
11p.m.)of
the
last
evening
of
the
twelfth
lunar
month,
each
family
must
prepare
offering
s
to
deities
at
the
altar.
At
the
sa
me
time,
they
too
prepare
food
for
the
New
Year
day:
The
whole
family
wil
l
then
stay
awake
together
to
attend
to
the
year(called
shou
sui).
After
hais
hi,
zishi(11p.m.
to
1a.m.)will
come,
and
this
is
the
arrival
of
New
Year(Yuan
dan).
At
this
moment,
people
begin
the
celebration
with
fireworks.
Vegetaria
n
and
sweet
foods
will
then
be
placed
are
the
altar
for
offerings,
and
incen
se
be
burned
to
welcome
the
deities.
In
the
ancient
times,
it
was
believed
t
hat
haishi
connected
the
two
years
and
thus
was
called
kaisui.
At
the
same
night,
some
families
will
follow
the
instruction
in
Tongshu
and
place
preparing
altar
in
the
direction
of
the
deity
during
the
e
time
to
receive
the
deity.
If
the
direction
of
the
deity
is
at
the
ll
position
people
will
choose
to
receive
deity
or
deity
inste
ad.
2.
There
is
an
apparent
difference
in
the
custom
of
food
taking
on
Yuandan
between
the
Chinese
in
the
northern
and
southern
regions.
The
northern
C
hinese
has
the
habit
of
taking
jiao
zi(dumpling
made
of
flour
with
vegetable
and
meat
wrapped
inside).
Some
people
may
put
a
sweet
or
a
coin
inside
jiao
zi,
hoping
to
have
a
sweet
year
after
tasting
the
sweet
and
a
wealthy
year
after
tasting
the
coin.
on
the
other
hand,
the
southern
Chinese
have
t
he
taboo
for
killing
on
Yuandan.
Therefore,
they
do
not
take
meat
in
tee
m
orning
of
Yuandan,
so
as
to
avoid
bloodshed
or
mutual
slaughter.
In
order
t
o
evade
misfortune,
they
have
the
first
meal
of
this
day
without
meat.
Inste
ad,
they
take
vegetarian
food
for
the
sake
of
virtue.
3.
What
is
special
during
the
New
Year
is
that
parents
or
elders
will
distrib
ute
red
packets(ang
pao
or
ya
sui
qian)to
the
children.
People
in
the
ancie
nt
times
were
more
particular
in
giving
away
the
red
packets:
the
distributio
n
took
place
on
the
eve
of
New
Year
so
that
the
kids
could
suppress
the
past
year
and
enter
the
New
Year.
Ya
sui
has
the
meaning
of
overcoming
the
unpredictable
future.
Representing
the
wishes
for
the
healthy
psychologi
cal
growth
of
the
children,
ya
sui
qian
symbolises
the
elders'
hope
to
see
t
heir
children
overcome
all
the
unpredictable
elements
brought
by
the
4.
There
is
an
extraordinary
number
of
taboos
on
Yuandan.
Each
place
has
its
own
customs
of
taboo.
Here,
we
will
mention
only
a
few
common
tabo
os
in
Fujian
Province,
Guangdong
Province
and
Southeast
Asia:
In
the
past,
people
commonly
believed
that
fortune
was
hidden
in
the
hous
e.
So,
wsweeping
of
floor
must
be
done
in
the
direction
moving
inwards,
a
nd
there
was
no
clearance
of
rubbish
at
night.
Particularly
on
the
New
Tear
day,
in
order
to
keep
fortune
from
flowing
out,
there
was
no
sweeping.
So
me
families
kept
this
taboo
until
the
fifth
or
even
the
fifteenth
day.
If
anythi
ng
was
broken,
the
pieces
were
wrapped
up
in
order
not
to
let
the
fortune
slip
away
and
were
disposed
only
the
fifth
day.
Yuandan(in
more
serious
families,
the
period
extends
from
the
1st
to
the
15
th
day)
marks
the
new
beginning.
In
the
hope
that
New
Year
brings
good
b
eginning,
people
should
utter
neither
unkind
words
nor
vulgar
language.
Ma
king
noises,
fighting,
quarreling
and
especially
weeping
are
avoided
to
deter
misfortune.
There
are
even
taboos
of
taking
medicine
and
having
sneeze,
f
or
it
is
believed
that
they
can
lead
to
sickness
throughout
the
year.
Taboos
of
the
past
also
concerned
the
use
of
knife
and
the
breaking
of
things.
If
a
thing
was
broken,
the
word
or
any
other
word
importing
similar
m
eaning
was
not
used.
Instead,
words
like
to
the
floor
and
blossomin
g
like
flowers
which
delivered
pleasant
senses
were
used
to
suggest
good
connections.
On
Yuandan,
neither
lending
and
nor
giving
of
money
to
others
is
done
so
that
there
will
be
no
out-flowing
of
money
during
the
year.
There
is
also
th
e
saying
that
if
a
male
sleeps
in
the
afternoon,
his
career
will
breakdown,
and
if
a
female
has
an
afternoon
nap,
the
kitchen
will
collapse.
5.
Ancient
rite:
In
the
past,
there
was
a
rite
called
he
zheng(proper
greeting)
during
New
Year.
When
a
person
paid
a
New
Year
visit
to
friends
or
relativ
es,
he
took
along
a
piece
of
paper
or
card
on
which
the
name
of
the
host
was
written
wit
Chinese
brush.
The
receiver
of
this
greeting
card
would
no
rmally
paste
it
on
the
wall
of
his
main
hall
to
show
his
respect
to
and
appr
eciation
for
the
visitor.
The
quantity
of
greeting
card
received
reflected
the
p
erson's
public
relationship
with
others,
while
the
names
and
status
of
the
pe
ople
who
gave
the
greeting
cards
indicated
the
host's
boundary
of
social
ne
twork
and
standard
of
living.
Nowadays,
because
of
easy
communication,
co
nvenient
transportation
system
and
wider
social
network,
when
people
send
their
greetings
they
tend
to
follow
the
Western
style.
The
greeting
is
now
d
one
by
mail
and
even
by
email.
Today,
he
zheng
is
done
by
simply
bringin
g
along
red
packets
and
food
presents
when
making
a
visit.
To
be
in
line
with
the
custom
of
to
giving
away
money
on
the
first
day,
fa
milies
in
some
places
do
not
pay
New
Year
call
to
others.
Instead,
the
who
le
family
simply
goes
out
to
enjoy
themselves
or
stayed
at
home
for
family
happiness.
6.
In
the
past,
there
was
a
superstition
that
when
a
person
left
his
house
i
n
the
New
Year,
he
must
take
the
correct
first
step.
A
particular
person
wo
uld
look
for
the
fortunate
direction
in
accordance
with
the
day,
month
and
y
ear
of
this
birth
basing
on
the
explanation
of
Chinese
calendar.
On
Yuan
D
an,
when
a
person
stepped
out
of
his
house,
he
must
go
in
the
fortunate
d
irection
and
avoid
the
unfortunate
direction.
Even
people
of
less
particularity
also
consulted
Chinese
calendar
to
find
out
where
the
fortunate
directions
and
fierce
deities
were
before
the
first
step
out
of
their
houses.
Meaning
From
the
above
mentioned
customs,
we
can
see
that
there
are
especially
many
taboos
during
Chinese
New
Year.
On
Yuan
Dan
in
particular,
there
a
re
more
taboos
on
speech
and
behaviour
than
those
on
other
ordinary
days.
Similarly,
there
are
more
activities
in
pursuit
of
good
cause
than
usual.
On
probing
the
activities
and
taboos,
we
have
no
difficulty
to
understand
that
t
he
theme
behind
is
always
related
to
fortune,
wealth
and
goodness,
and
th
at
people
usually
concern
themselves
with
a
good
beginning
for
the
year.
Some
taboos
may
look
superstitious
on
the
surface,
but
they
do
produce
ef
ficacy.
If
we
practise
them
circumspectively,
they
will
yield
practical
results.
For
example,
the
prohibition
of
bad
words,
quarrel,
weeping
and
crying,
tog
ether
with
the
emphasis
on
thinking
positively
even
when
things
are
broken,
provide
some
normative
rules
for
people
to
follow.
This
gives
people
the
o
pportunity
to
mend
their
ways,
to
develop
good
attitudes,
and
to
form
a
hab
it
of
thinking
positively
and
looking
at
the
good
side
of
things.
The
prohibitio
n
of
sweeping
and
disposing
the
rubbish
in
the
first
five
days
forces
people
to
arrange
their
things
and
clear
away
the
rubbish
properly
at
the
end
of
each
year,
so
that
no
unwanted
things
will
be
carried
forward
to
the
new
y
ear.
At
the
same
time,
the
taboo
also
compels
people
to
learn
to
be
thrifty.
This
is
because
to
prevent
accumulated
things
from
becoming
rubbish,
peo
ple
must
be
careful
in
the
use
of
any
paper
or
other
things,
and
thus
avoid
waste
of
things.
The
avoidance
of
medicine
and
sneeze
on
the
first
day
looks
like
a
joke
an
d
is
absurd
as
far
as
the
patient
is
concerned.
However,
because
of
the
ta
boos,
people
will
be
conscious
enough
to
take
serious
care
of
their
health
during
the
windy
and
snowing
season.
Thus,
they
will
avoid
falling
sick
in
t
he
New
Year
and
wasting
away
the
precious
spring
hours.