元旦：一元复始万象更新

Love English 2 2022-12-23

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元旦，即公历的1⽉1⽇，是世界多数国家通称的“新年”。元，谓“始”，凡数之始称为“元”；旦，谓“⽇”；“元旦”即“初始之⽇”的意思。“元旦”通常指历法中的`⾸⽉⾸⽇。

元旦节英⽂：New Years Day

New Years Day is the first day of the year. In Western countries this is the 1st of January. 元旦节是新年的第⼀天。在西⽅国家，元旦节是

⼀⽉⼀⽇。

On New Years Day in 1974, I started keeping a journal.

1974年元旦那⼀天，我开始写⽇记了。

看来，“元旦”叫New Year’s Day(注意⼤写)。

顺便说⼀下，今天是“元旦”，那么昨天就是“元旦前夜”，它的英⽂说法是New Year’s Eve。

New Years Eve is the last day of the year, the day before New Years Day.

元旦前夜是⼀年的最后⼀天，也即元旦的前⼀天。(eve既可以指前夜，⼜可以指前⼀天，请⼤家留意⼀下)

On New Years Eve I usually give a party, which is always chaotic. 元旦前夜我经常要办派对，所以总是乱糟糟的。

From the above mentioned customs, we can see that there are especially many taboos during Chinese New Year.

On Yuan Dan in particular, there are 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 the theme behind is always related to fortune, wealth and goodness, and that people usually concern themselves with a good beginning for the year.

Some taboos may look superstitious on the surface, but they do produce efficacy. If we practise them circumspectively, they will yield practical results. For example, the prohibition of bad words, quarrel, weeping and crying, together with the emphasis on thinking positively even when things are broken, provide some normative rules for people to follow.

This gives people the opportunity to mend their ways, to develop good attitudes, and to form a habit of thinking positively and looking at the good side of things.

The prohibition 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 year.

At the same time, the taboo also compels people to learn to be thrifty. This is because to prevent accumulated things from becoming rubbish, people 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 and is absurd as far as the patient is concerned. However, because of the taboos, 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 the New Year and wasting away the precious spring hours.

Nowadays, people have abandoned the custom of bringing along greeting cards when they go for New Year house visits. However, Chinese Malaysians still maintain the habit of sending New Year greeting cards by post before the New Year.

There are even non-Chinese sending New Year greeting cared in English or Malay languages to their Chinese friends. Moreover, the Chinese like to use colourful New Year cared to decorate their houses, so as to strengthen the New Year atmosphere.

Like the ancient days greeting cards for he zheng which were displayed in the main hall, these modern New Year cards also reflect the social position of the persons who receive the cards. Thus, in the way, the ancient rite of he zheng has developed in Malaysia with a Malaysian colour.

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