当提到万圣节,你能想到什么呢?或许是美剧里经常出现的南瓜灯、变装party以及那些精心装扮过的“鬼房”。当然,还有糖。美国人每年万圣节会消费6亿磅糖果。据美国零售联合会的一项调查,美国人每年要花费74亿美元庆祝万圣节。
美国学者Regina Hansen在此向大家介绍一下英美两国在庆祝万圣节上的差别,以及万圣节是如何一步步演变成今天的假期。
在英国,人们庆祝在11月5日用焰火盖伊福克斯日(Guy Fawkes Day)。在威尔士,爱尔兰,苏格兰和英格兰,你会发现人们庆祝万圣节的方式和美国这边没什么区别。
而美国大规模庆祝万圣节是随着爱尔兰移民的出现而开始的。因为这件事看起来很有趣,所以很多人也想参与其中。
一点一点地,万圣节越来越像是一个儿童的节日。孩子们走街串巷,嘴里说着“trick or treat”并收获许多糖果。于是,人们在其中发现了商机。当然也有一些人因为万圣节是一个异教节日并且常常与巫术联系在一起而不参与。但也有一些人就是因为万圣节的根源。所以,如今的万圣节意味着异教、基督教以及金钱。
原文参考:
How do other countries celebrate the holiday?
In Britain they celebrate Guy Fawkes Day, which is observed November 5, with fireworks. In Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and England, you’ll find Halloween celebrated the way Americans celebrate it.
In America, the real explosion of Halloween happened when the Irish immigrants came and brought their practice with them. It looked like a really fun thing to do. So other people wanted to do it.
When did it become the holiday we know today?
Little by little it became more of a children’s holiday. People found a way to make money off of it. There are people who won’t celebrate Halloween because of its pagan origins and this idea that it’s associated with witchcraft. There are certain groups in Christianity that embrace Halloween exactly for what it is—this combination of what came before we incorporated the holiday into our American culture. So now it’s paganism, Christianity, and money.
Christmas, too, was a pagan festival for a long time, and then it went away as a practice, and then it came back in the 19th century.
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