2018-02-25

【Aiden in English】

        Chinese New Year (CNY), what a wonderful time. We relax, eat delicious food, drink fantastic stuff, and sleep in. It’s the very biggest holiday of the year that everyone deserves a break and feels good to be out of school… wait, we’re in the US.

        For a country built on immigrants, it’s really ironic to see it pret---ty much grazed over the largest holiday of the largest population in the world. Only one of the few hypocritical attributes held by the US.

        Instead of giving an official holiday, the school system celebrates the Year of Dog with General Tso’s Chicken and green-brown rice. What is a bite of China? This puts even more stress on the Spring Festival annual gala. If this doesn’t go well, most of the local Chinese people will have New Year celebrations destroyed. Since only one public school in the suburb of Philadelphia takes the Lunar New Year off, I’m assuming other than a family dinner, this is as much celebration people would get. Granted, for performers, stage crew, staff, and organizers, Guanghua Chinese School Gala isn’t much of a ‘break’. Instead, it’s a busy five hours of scrambling around, getting mentally ready and trying not to absolutely mess up your role in a large behind-the-scenes machine.

        A series of practices and two slices of pizza later, we performed Yo-Yo as the opener, which went “meh”. Not our best showing by a long shot, but it was bearable. After a few sighs of depression, a group of friends and I left for a far corner in the school to chillax and munch on pocky sticks. It was nice. Finally, a chunk of time where it’s just a simple chat with friends without any desperate project due the next day. Speaking of which, I have an essay due in two days. Better start typing. 

        Anyway, this brings quite an annoying topic to mind. What determines which holidays in the US are important? If the measurement is by ethnicity and each one’s population, then Chinese New Year should be a huge holiday. Looking at the current holidays outside of national historical moments (i.e. the 4^th of July), there’s really isn’t a certain rubric that people follow. After some research, I discovered that all national holidays have to go through Congress, but that doesn’t really answer my question. Where does the incentive to make a certain day special arise from? It’s not like Congress says Chinese New Year isn’t a native holiday. If so, that’s extremely ironic and hypocritical of them, since America isn’t much more than a melting pot of different-tasting cheeses. 

        I totally understand that making a new holiday isn’t on the top of our government’s list, but there is more and more argument for making the Spring Festival a holiday. As a large ethnic group in the country, the Lunar New Year is celebrated by many people, not just Chinese. Yes, the festivity does last 15 days, but just having the first day off is good enough. I mean, if there’s a holiday for a groundhog, can’t you have a holiday for 3.7 million people in the country? Perhaps I’m being a bit prideful, and there are already enough holidays, but the truth is, I just want another day out of school.

【紅霞譯文】

        中國新年，喜慶的時刻到了！大家放鬆身心，吃喝玩樂不困不休，正因為它堪稱一年當中最為重要的節日，人人都該讓自己歇息片刻，好好享受不上學愉快時光……且慢，我們身居美國喲。

        對於一個建立於移民基礎之上的國度來說，明知它是世上規模最大氣氛最濃的新春佳節卻並毫無表示，真令人不可思議，這種言行不一的教條行為在美國實屬罕見。

        既然官方沒安排放假，學校隆重推出“左宗棠雞”翡翠糙米飯來慶祝狗年春節，所謂舌尖上的中國？這就給當地一年一度的春節慶祝活動造成莫大壓力，如果搞砸了，勢必影響到絕大多數華人過節心情。鑑於費城郊外僅有一個學區專為農曆新年放假，我覺得除了闔家共享年夜飯，“山寨春晚“無疑成了玉犬送金雞最佳方式，這下只好煩勞所有參與光華中文學校聯歡會演出的演員、舞台劇務、工作成員、節目策劃捨棄很多“休息”時間，五個鐘頭連軸轉，幕後全班人馬非但要精神飽滿，而且還得保障絕對不能出現任何閃失。

        經過反覆排練並拿來兩片披薩充飢之後，我們作為開場舞演員為聯歡會帶來了空竹表演，總體水平發揮“一般”，雖然算不上出色，但演技說得過去。缺憾之餘，我和一幫朋友躲到樓道盡端拐角處口嚼百奇餅乾棒自尋其樂，總算偷得浮生半日閒。末了哥兒們胡吹亂侃大半晌，避而不談明天煩心課業。說到課業，兩天后我要交作文，還是提早動筆為妙。

        不管怎麼講，心裡總放不下困擾已久的話題，決定美國節日重要性的因素究竟是什麼？如果單從種族及其人口數量方面考量，那麼春節當之無愧。暫且撇開全國值得紀念的歷史時刻（例如七月四號獨立節），細數現有其它節假日確實讓人找不出特別標準。經過一番研究，我發現所有國家法定節日必須通過國會審批，但這並未真正回答我的問題，是什麼契機讓某一天成為法定節日？總不會像國會認為中國新年非本土節日那樣吧，假如真是如此，豈不既滑稽可笑又虛情假意，好歹美國稱得上一個多元文化大熔爐。

        我完全理解政府尚未打算新增節日，但要求春節放假的呼聲愈來愈高，作為全國一支龐大的少數族裔，很多人歡度農曆新年，並非僅僅局限於華夏子弟。沒錯，節日慶祝活動長達十五天，但只要頭一天休息就成。依我看，既然能給土撥鼠過節，怎麼就不能給全美370萬民眾放假呢？也許我帶點民族自豪感，本來節假日已經夠多的，可說白了，我還想多要一天不用上學的日子。

Today in History(歷史上的今天):

2017 Twp Rec Basketball Game-9(2017年鄉村娛樂籃球隊第九場比賽)

2016: Academic Challenge(學術知識競賽)

2015: B-D Dinner @ Lai Lai Garden(來來花園生日晚餐)

2012: 生日聚會─溜冰(B-D Skating)

Crosslinks(相關博文):

The 2017 Year of Rooster Celebrated w/ Yo-Yo(抖空竹過雞年)

The 2016 Year of Monkey Celebrated w/ Yo-Yo(抖空竹過猴年)

The 2015 Year of Goat Celebrated w/ Yo-Yo(抖空竹過羊年)