人教版高一英语必修3unit 1-Topic reading

TOPIC READING

Celebration of Chinese Spring Festival

（★★ Words: about 340; Time: 5.5 minutes）

让我们随本文重温一下春节的各种庆祝活动吧！

Of all the traditional Chinese festivals, the Spring Festival is perhaps the most colorful

and important.

To celebrate the biggest and most important festival, people do a lot of preparations for it.

Early from December 23rd in the Chinese calendar, people begin to clean their houses. This is called Spring Cleaning. In China, red is very popular when celebrating festivals because it means good luck and it can create a happy atmosphere (气氛). Therefore, big red lanterns are hung in front of houses, on trees along the streets, on buildings and stores.

On the eve of Spring Festival, red couplets (对联) and posters are posted on doors. They

symbolize happiness, prosperity (繁荣) and good luck in the New Year. For the Spring Festival is a time for family reunion, therefore, on the eve of Spring Festival, all family members get together to have Reunion Dinner. After the dinner, all family members share the Spring Festival Gala Evening, a performance on CCTV loved by people at home and abroad. When the clock strikes 12 o’clock at midnight of New Year’s Eve, people set off firecrackers and fireworks. It is one of the most popular ways of celebrating the Spring Festival’s coming. It is so exciting that people always stay up late until the early hours of the morning.

On the Spring Festival, people wear new clothes to welcome the New Year’s coming.

Early in the morning, people greet relatives and friends with congratulations and wish good luck to each other. This custom is called New Year Greetings. Then children receive their lucky money in red pockets from their grandparents, their parents, their relatives and friends of their parents. It is believed that red pocket money can bring good luck. When the children get their lucky money, they always give their best regards with auspicious (吉利的) words.

There are lots of other activities celebrating the Spring Festival, such as different evening

parties and dancing, but the most popular ones are dragon dances and lion dances.