摘要:This paper discusses typical important festivals in China and Western Countries. Firstly, it introduces Spring Festival and Christmas respectively. And then it reveals the differences in origin and custom through the comparative study of Spring Festival and Christmas.
of values is the important spiritual wealth of human civilization as people involved carry on researching. The Spring Festival gradually becomes the worldwide cultural brand through concentrated, systemic process, on the basis of keeping the traditional custom.
2.2 Christmas in Western Countries
Christmas is a holiday usually observed on December 25, which celebrates the birth of Jesus. In predominantly Christian countries, Christmas has become the most economically significant holiday of the year, and it also celebrated as a secular holiday in many countries with small Christian population. An enormous number of customs, with either secular, religious, or national aspects, surround Christmas, and vary form country to country.
2.2.1 The Origin and Development of Christmas
The name Christmas is short for “Christ’s Mass”. A Mass is a kind of Church service. Christmas is a religious festival. It is the day we celebrate as the birthday of Jesus.
The birth of Jesus had a story: In Nazareth, a city of Galilee. The virgin’s name was Mary was betrothed to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband was minded to put her away secretly. While he thought about these things, Gabriel, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and told him did not be afraid to ace Mary as wife. And Mary will bring forth a Son, and he shall call his name, Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
Before Jesus births, Joseph and Mary came to Quintus was governing Syria. So all went to be registered everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up out of Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and of the lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. So it was that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And that, Christmas is the feast of the nativity of Jesus, is on 25th, December every year.
In the early Christmas era, another religious belief vied for popularity with Christianity. Many Romans worshipped Mithra, a Persian savior-god. His birth was celebrated on December 25th, and the festival was called the “Birthday of the Unconquered Son”. There were many parallels between Mithra and Jesus, and in the fourth century ad, Christians adopted Mithra’s birthday as Jesus. (Sherry Bonnice, 2006:14)
Today people often claim that we have “lost the true meaning of Christmas”. They look back fondly at their childhood Christmas, believing that Christmas was somehow more “real”, more traditional, back when they were young. Actually, however, our modern world has its own traditions; some of these may be a bit different from those our parents and grandparents enjoyed, but they are nevertheless still tied to customs and belief that stretch all the way back to that long-ago birth.
Our world is not the first to have difficulty keeping the spirit of Christmas fresh in our minds. The light of generosity and divine love has always been easily obscured by human green and selfishness. Somehow, though, the light continues to burn, century after century.
Now the story of Jesus’ birth has been told
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