中英雙語話中國民風民俗 第52期:中國人的拜年

Chinese Bainian

中國人的拜年

Early on the first morning of the Spring Festival，families set out to pay a lunar New Year visit to each other after the members of each family greet each other with lunar New Year wishes. This is called in Chinese Bainian， meaning paying the Spring Festival visits and greetings. Usually,the youngpay a visit to the old while the people about the same age share equal greetings；then,visits are paid in sequence to relatives of close kinship,relations ,neighbors, teachers, friends and colleagues. To kowtow used to be one of the rites involved in paying the spring Festival visits,but now it is replaced by the Spring festival greetings with best wishes, for instance,wishes for a good fortune. When the junior pay the senior the Spring Festival visit, the latter are supposed to give the former some money as a gift,which is known "money for an added age."

在春節的第一天早上，去拜年，每個成員家庭成員互相問候與送上農曆新年的祝願。在中國，這就是所謂的拜年，這意味着春節走訪和問候。通常情況下，年輕的拜訪年老的，而年齡相仿的互相問候;然後，拜訪的順序是有密切的血緣關係的親戚，愛人，鄰居，老師，朋友和同事。磕頭是春節拜訪儀式之一，但現在卻換成了春節的問候與美好的祝願，例如，祝願發財。當未成年人拜訪年長者時，年長者應該給未成年人一些錢作爲禮物，這被稱爲“壓歲錢”。