2018-02-18

【Aiden in English】

        Day three of Chinese New Year celebrations, I feel really, really bad. I’ve had a lot of Peking ducks, too much seafood, and not enough sleep. Regardless, no one feels guilty about the times passed. It’s like being in Las Vegas: blowing money feels good. Around Chinese New Year, food flows like water, which is funny because I don’t think I’ve drunk anything healthy for a good three or so dinners.

        Tonight, for the second time in three nights, we went to Golden City, a local Chinese restaurant, for a teacher-exclusive appreciation dinner hosted by Guanghua Chinese School. I sat with a younger group of friends about my age, and we messed around most of the night. The food was good, the chat was good, a good experience all around. However, I do want to talk about the purpose of the holidays. For the longest time, I never understood what the reason behind celebrating what some dude five-hundred years ago did. Christopher Columbus wasn’t even the first European to discover North America!

        A celebration on holidays is supposed to commemorate certain events that occurred on the same day in history. We celebrate Independence Day for independence, New Year’s for the New Year, and National Pi Day because we have nothing better to do. But do we really commemorate the great actions put in by those whom we celebrate? 

        This generation is strange. We have the best technology, food supply, and sanitation in history. We aren’t grateful for anything (at least, I’m not). In previous generations, life was different. There were more physical and life-threatening issues people had to deal with. Medicine was expensive, food was hard to find. Today, people are afraid of the common cold! What have we gotten to? For Thanksgiving, I didn’t even think much about being thankful. Granted, I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, but there wasn’t an ounce of thankfulness in my heart. The holidays have become nothing more than rest and fun away from school. That’s ridiculous.

        So why are there holidays? Well, the best answer is that people make up the culture. Holidays give relaxation periods in between tough work, which makes for lots of quality time with others. However, national holidays strengthen the bond of the country since everyone shares a similar sense of joy when celebrations roll around. Nationalism is born from things shared by the common people, ranging from race to social class. As of right now, the holidays are becoming less and less used to commemorate dead presidents and honorary vets and more as to take time off. I like that. 

【紅霞譯文】

        中國新年慶祝活動已進入第三天，我感覺昏頭昏腦，除了幹掉好多北京烤鴨並豪吞大量海鮮，沒睡足半個囫圇覺。儘管如此，無人對過去幾天庸碌無為有丁點愧疚，宛若置身拉斯維加斯：揮霍錢財才叫開心。春節前後山珍海味魚貫而來，滑稽的是酒肉穿我腸的上兩三頓晚餐未必健康。

        今晚是過去三天來我第二次進駐附近這家中餐館──金城酒家，專程參加賓州光華中文學校舉行的教師答謝晚宴，我跟年齡相仿的同伴們圍坐一桌，整個晚上大家隨心所欲，吃得爽口聊得投機玩得盡興。不過我還是想談點節日用意，長久以來，本人從未搞懂五百年前先輩們為啥要過節，何況克里斯托弗·哥倫布又不是第一個發現北美大陸的歐洲人！

        節日本應紀念歷史上同日所發生的特殊事件，我們過“國慶節”為的是慶祝民族獨立，“元旦”用來歡度新年頭一天， “國立圓周率日”則因無聊而沒事找事做，但針於那些值得銘記的偉人我們該幹些什麼呢？

        我們這一代人很奇怪，儘管擁有史上最先進的科學技術、最豐足的食物供給、最講究的衛生設施，但生在福中不惜福（至少我這樣）。早前幾輩境況迥然有別，他們需要面對更多生死攸關的問題，醫療昂貴食品匱乏。如今我們對感冒怕得要死！那麼到底有何收穫？感恩節時，我甚至想不起來該感謝什麼，雖說我並不慶祝感恩節，但內心深處確實沒有多少感恩之情，節日於我無外乎遠離學校自尋其樂，要多荒唐有多荒唐。

        既然如此，為什麼要過節呢？最佳答案莫過於扶植文化，其實歡度節日就是讓你忙裡偷閒專門與他人共享珍貴時光。然而，全民性節日用來強化國家凝聚力，因為在舉國歡慶的日子裡人人都沉浸在歡樂的氣氛中，油然而生的愛國主義成為連接各個種族不同階層的紐帶。截至到目前為止，節日越來越少地被用來紀念已故總統和榮譽退伍軍人，頂多放個假而已，我喜歡這樣。

Today in History(歷史上的今天):

2017 MathCounts Regional Competition(2017年初中數學分區賽)

2015: Chinese New Year Eve @ Lai Lai Garden(來來花園春節年夜飯)

Crosslink(相關博文):

2015 GHCS Teachers' Appreciation Dinner(2015年光華教師答謝晚宴)