The Comparison of Christmas and Spring Festival

Abstract

The Spring Festival and Christmas are the most essential festivals in China and western countries respectively, even they have the different history and the different culture connotation and the different functions, but the day is all for people to get together with their families and friends. In that day, people can exchange gifts and send blessing to other people, the westerners in the day will help others in need and Chinese are greeting the elders and friends and get together with their friends. The two festivals are advantageous to the national culture inheritance and spread. The Spring Festival was come from the ancient harvest rituals. Christmas is mainly for celebrating the birth of Christian and people could help the other people in need. During the Spring Festival Chinese has a ritual of worshiping ancestors and visiting their elders. In the paper, the custom of the Spring Festival and Christmas introducted firstly, then the paper analyzes the popularity of Christmas in China, it is very popular but can not take the place the Spring Festivals. Then the comparison between Spring Festival and Christmas are analyzed from the aspects of the history and the cultural connotation and the cultural function.

Keywords:the Spring Festival; Christmas; Culture; Comparison

Contents

Abstract I

Contents I

Introduction 1

1. The Introduction about the spring festival and Christmas 3

1.1 The introduction about the spring festival 3

1.2 The introduction about the Christmas 3

2.The Comparison between Spring Festival and Christmas: Cultural Connotation and Function 5

2.1 The History 5

2.2 The Cultural Tradition 6

2.3 The economy 7

3. Conclusion　 9

References 11