Happy New Year

　　January 1st is Yuandan, it's the arrival(到来) of New Year.As the first day of the year, Yuandan has been considered（认为） to be the most important festival（节日） since the ancient（古代的）times.At this moment, people begin the celebration（庆祝）with fireworks（焰火）.

   There is an apparent（明显的）difference in the custom（习俗）of food taking on Yuandan between the Chinese in the northern and southern regions（地区）. The northern Chinese has the habit of taking dumpling（饺子）,some people may put a sweet or a coin inside them, hoping to have a sweet year after tasting the sweet and a wealthy（富有的）year after tasting the coin. On the other hand, the southern Chinese have the taboo（禁忌） for killing on Yuandan. Therefore, they have the first meal of Yuandan without meat.

　　There is many taboos on Yuandan.In the past,people believed that fortune（财富）was hidden（躲藏）in the house. Particularly on the New Year day, in order to keep fortune from flowing（流动）out, there was no sweeping（清扫）.If anything was broken, the pieces were wrapped（包）up in order not to let the fortune slip（溜，滑动）away.People should utter(说,使用) neither unkind words nor vulgar（粗俗的）language. Making noises, fighting,　quarrelling and especially weeping（哭泣）are avoided（避免）to deter（防止） misfortune（不幸）.There are even taboos of taking medicine and having sneeze（喷嚏）,for it is believed that they can lead to sickness throughout the year.Taboos also concerned the use of knife and the breaking of things. If a thing was broken, the word “break”or any other similar（类似的）word was not used. There is also the saying that if a male（男性）sleeps in the afternoon, his career will breakdown(崩溃), and if a female（女性） has an afternoon nap（小睡）,the kitchen will collapse（倒塌）.

　　Moreover,the Chinese like to use colourful New Year card to decorate（装饰）their houses,so as to strengthen（加强）the New Year atmosphere（氛围）. Nowadays,to send greetings（祝福）Chinese people tend to（倾向于）follow the Western style. The greeting is now done by mail and even by email. Chinese Malaysians（马来西亚人）maintain（保留）the habit of sending New Year greeting cards by post and there are even non-Chinese sending New Year greeting card in English or Malay（马来语）languages to their Chinese friends.

　　Yuandan marks the new beginning when people send off the old days and welcome the new ones.In the hope that New Year brings good luck,let's say to each other “Happy New Year!”

Choose the correct　answers:

1.Yuandan is ＿＿＿＿＿ .

A、January 10th            B、March 3rd

C、January 1st             D、March 5th

2.On Yuandan the northern Chinese has the habit of taking ＿＿＿＿＿ .

A、rice                    B、dumpling　

C、beef（牛肉）             D、orange

3.On Yuandan the southern Chinese has the habit of not taking ＿＿＿＿ .

A、meat                    B、apple　

C、bread(面包)                           D、cake（蛋糕）

4.Which are the taboos on Yuandan？

A、sweeping and fighting   B、singing and dancing　

C、quarrelling and weeping D、both A & C

5.Yuandan is the new beginning of ＿＿＿＿＿ .

A、Spring Festival         B、New Year

C、Christmas Day           D、Thanksgiving Day（感恩节）

KEYS:

1、C　　2、B　　3、A　　4、D　　5、B