Should We Chinese Celebrate the Western Festivals？
Whether we Chinese should celebrate the western festivals or not has been a subject of heated discussion and argument among people of all ranks recent years. Some say that it’s improper for the western festivals to be celebrated in China because such a festival as Christmas possesses strong religious sense and colors. They are deeply convinced that on the one hand the popularity of the western festivals in China is the result of the foreign cultural invasion and the infiltration1 of the foreign “soft force”. On the other hand, more and more Chinese people, especially young people, have lost their interest in our traditional Chinese festivals like Mid-autumn Festival, Dragon-boat Festival, Tomb-sweeping Day, Double Ninth Festival etc., showing clearly that some countrymen have lost their self-confidence in our national culture and customs. At the advent of the western festivals, such as Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and so forth, a festive air scarcely seen before appears across the country, attracting thousands upon thousands of Chinese people. In general, the Chinese young men almost don’t know the profound implications of our traditional Chinese festivals, instead they are familiar with the western festivals and go after them like a flock of ducks, which has brought about a serious shock to the Chinese traditional culture and the sense of the community. If the situation continues to develop like this, the consequence would be too ghastly to contemplate. They say as most of us don’t believe in Christ, God or religions, and few of us know the meaning of Christmas, what’s the point of celebrating it? Christmas is a festival full of religious colors and meanings for the Christians. If the non-Christians participate in the observance, they are subservient to foreigners.So let’s keep our mind on the traditional Chinese festivals instead. Others think that being one of the achievements won by the Chinese people in the reform and opening to the outside world, the western festivals are right and proper to be celebrated by us Chinese. It has nothing to do with worshiping and having blind faith in things foreign. A case in point is that Christmas is springing up quietly and soundlessly in our country and becoming widely popular day by day. As is known to all that Christmas Day, December 25, is
the most important festival in the western world, although it is almost certainly not the day on which Jesus Christ was born. Originally Christmas was a religious rite—the “Christ Mass” ---and it did not become a fixed holiday until 440 A.D. . Today, Christmas is still observed as an anniversary of the birthday of Christ, but its religious aspect is almost lost to the lay world amidst all the commercialisation6 and human excitement of it. The celebration usually includes an exchange of cards and presents among relatives and friends, decking the sitting room out with a Christmas tree, and a feast featuring a turkey or a goose. People can take advantage of this moment to entertain themselves, get together and extend their greetings each other.
It was said that ten doctors from the most famous universities of China published an article in the newspapers, putting forward a joint proposal with signatures to call on the fellow countrymen to “resist the western expansion of culture and the foreign soft force”. The article begins with the words that the western culture has turned from gentle breeze and fine rain into violent wind and driving rain. The article continues that when Christmas is around the corner, shopping malls, restaurants, hotels and other places in China are beautifully decorated with Christmas trees and other Christmas ornaments. The nets, newspapers, TV stations and radios are filled with the Christmas information while countless Christmas cards and tens of millions of Christmas messages are sent everywhere through the post offices and the mobilephones. It is on the Christmas Eve that people come together and rejoice with wild excitement, drinking, singing, and dancing. As is mentioned above that our society is evolving into a society with foreign overculture.In the meantime, they criticize the merchants for the responsibility of encouraging and increasing the Christmas’ influence in China.
It is common knowledge that every nation has its own special festivals with colorful backgrounds, which are closely connected with its special history or excellent culture. So festivals are the products of the sedimentary accretion8 of a nation’s culture over thousands of years. At the primitive stage of the social and civilized community and society, many of the festivals, no matter whether Chinese or foreign, can be traced back to different religions or customs in the distant past. Take the Chinese Spring Festival as an example, setting firecrackers was an effective way for the ancient people to guard against the tigers and wolfs and expel the demons and ghosts but these days the festival has become a joyful symbol for the Chinese people. The
continuous prosperity of the society and the steady progress of the culture promote the development of festive culture. The main characteristic of the festivals is as follows: the festivals with good vitality were gradually freed from the mysterious and superstitious9 atmosphere and evolved into the real festivals for the purpose of get-together and entertainment.
If a festival comes into being, it will be handed down over ages from generations to generations with a relative independence and stability. Now and then the social conditions being changed, the festivals remain the shadow of the old habits and customs. Now that many habits and customs have been passed over to the present days and accepted by the people, they show the dogged life force in themselves, but it doesn’t mean the festivals are invariable. On the contrary, they are continuously changing, some of which have died out on account of the backward and the outmoded conventions and customs.
Nowadays some of the festivals are characterized by cross-nations and trans-areas. In other words, it’s the result of economic and cultural exchanges of various countries. It can be said that the process of the development of the human civilization is the very process of mutual infiltration and mutual integration, during which one culture absorbs the nourishment13 of other cultures and each culture develops respectively on a new high degree. During the reform and opening, China needs to assimilate a good deal of foreign progressive culture and swallow anything and everything. As a result, the economic integration brings in the festive integration. It’s right to lay emphasis on our traditional festivals but it’s not proper to reject the foreign ones on this account. As late Chairman Mao said: “Make the past serve the present and foreign things serve China.” In fact, China has been receiving some foreign festivals on a selective basis since the reform and opening like Christmas Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, which have taken root and sprouted across our country, becoming popular festivals among the people. For one thing, with the various communications and media of the day changing with each passing day, the exchanges in each field are on increase day by day, for another the traditional Chinese culture and customs are being adopted and the Chinese festivals are being celebrated by more and more western peoples. As a traditional Chinese festival and a typical Eastern culture, the Chinese Spring Festival is being observed by foreigners in many countries. The foreign people enjoy Chinese dumplings, set off firecrackers, perform lion’s dances
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