汇众教育正规吗:西方节日的由来(英文)

母亲节的故事
古母亲节起源于希腊，古希腊人在这一天向希腊神话中的众神之母赫拉致敬。在17世纪中叶，母亲节流传到英国，英国人把封斋期的第四个星期天作为母亲节。在这一天里，出门在外的年青人将回到家中，给他们的母亲带上一些小礼物。
现代意义上的母亲节起源于美国，由Amanm、Jarvis（1864－1948）发起，她终身未婚，一直陪伴在她母亲身边，在母亲于1905年世纪，Amanm 悲痛欲绝，两年后（1907年），Amanm 和她的朋友开始写信给有影响的部长、商人、议员来寻求支持，以便让母亲节成为一个法定的节日。Amanm 认为子女经常忽视了对母亲的感情，她希望母亲节能够让人多想一想母亲为家庭所付出的一切。
第一个母亲节于1908年5月10 日在西弗吉尼亚和宾夕法尼亚州举行，在这次节日里，康乃被选中为献给母亲的花，并以此流传下来。
1913年，美国国会通过了一份议案，将每年5 月的第二个星期天作为法定的母亲节。母亲节从此流传开来！
母亲节与母亲之花
母亲是伟大的！世界上有个母亲节，那就是每年5月的第二个星期天。
母亲节是怎样来的呢？那就是在公元1907年5月，美国有位安娜贾伦斯女士，她在母亲逝世的追悼会上献上一束康乃馨花。后来，她认为所有的人都应该选定一天来怀念母亲，报答母亲的养育之恩。于是她请来亲戚、朋友，向他们说明了自己的想法，得到大家的赞同。接着安娜的故乡费城在1908年5月10日举行了“母亲日”。她继续呼吁，写了几千封信给国家议员、州长和各地有影响的人士。她的努力产生了效用。国会提议，每年5月的第二个星期日为法定的假日，为所有的母亲举行庆祝活动。1909年5月9日，威尔逊总统正式签署，把每年5月第二个星期日定为“母亲节”。如今世界上大多数国家的人们都在这一天开展庆祝“母亲节”的活动。
母亲之花———康乃馨。
在纤细青翠的花茎上，开出鲜艳美丽的花朵，花瓣紧凑而不易凋落，叶片秀长而不易卷曲，花朵雍容富丽，姿态高雅别致，色彩绚丽娇艳，更有那诱人的浓郁香气，甜醇幽雅，使人目迷心醉，这就是在母亲节赠给母亲的鲜花————康乃馨。1934年的5月，美国首次发行母亲节纪念邮票，邮票上一位慈祥的母亲，双手放在膝上，欣喜地看着前面的花瓶中一束鲜艳美丽的康乃馨。随着邮票的传播，在许多人的心目中把母亲节与康乃馨联系起来，康乃馨便成了象征母爱之花，受到人们的敬重。康乃馨与母亲节便联系在一起了。人们把思念母亲、孝敬母亲的感情，寄托于康乃馨上，康乃馨也成为了赠送母亲不可缺少的珍贵礼品。
我国也有一种母亲之花，它就是萱草花。萱草是百合科多年生草本植物，根茎肉质，叶狭长，细长的枝顶端开出桔红或桔黄色的花，十分艳丽，它不仅供人观赏，花蕾叫金针，也可作蔬菜供人食用，在我国南北方广为栽植。
中国的母亲花———萱草。
萱草，在我国一向有“母亲花”的美称。远在《诗经、卫风、伯兮》里载： “焉得谖草，言树之背？”谖草就是萱草，古人又叫它忘忧草，背，北，指母亲住的北房。这句话的意思就是：我到那里弄到一支萱草，种在母亲堂前，让母亲乐而忘忧呢？母亲住的屋子又叫萱堂，以萱草代替母爱，如孟郊的游子诗：“萱草生堂阶，游子行天涯；慈母依堂前，不见萱草花。”叶梦得的诗云：“白发萱堂上，孩儿更共怀。”萱草就成了母亲的代称，萱草也就自然成了我国的母亲之花。
全世界的母亲节
虽然，许多国家是在一年中不同的时节庆祝属於他们的母亲节。然而，多数国家如丹麦、芬兰、义大利、土耳其、澳洲和比利时，都是在五月的第二个星期日庆祝母亲节的。
★ 英国母亲节的发展
十七世纪英格兰，为表达对英国母亲们的敬意，乃订四旬斋的第四个星期日为「Mothering Sunday」，人们在这一天回家探视双亲，并致礼表示敬意。（注：四旬斋是指复活节前夕之前，星期天除外的40天）。
当时，有许多的穷人必须在有钱人家里帮讨生活，而被迫离家寄宿在主人家里，在Mothering Sunday这一天，主人们会放他们假，并鼓励他们返家与妈妈团聚。为增加欢乐气氛，也发展了一种特别的蛋糕称为－mothering cake。
随着基督神在欧洲的扩散，这个节日转为对「Mother Church」的崇敬：表达人们对赋予他们生命、保护他们免於伤害的精神力量的感谢。从此，教会的仪式便与母亲节的庆祝活动相结合，以同时传达人们对母亲与教会的感念。
★ 美国母亲节的发展
在美国，最早关於母亲节的记载是1872年由茱丽雅（Julia Ward Howe即The Battle Hymn of the Republic的作者）所提出的，她建议将这一天献给「和平」，并在波斯顿等地举行母亲节的集会。
1907年，费城的安娜 (Ana Jarvis)为了发起订立全国性的母亲节而活动。她说服了她母亲所属的、位於西维琴尼亚州的教会，在她母亲逝世二周年的忌日～即五月的第二个星期天，举办母亲节庆祝活动。隔年，费城人也开始在同一天庆祝母亲节。
之后，安娜和支持者们开始写信给部长、企业家和政治家，要求订立全国性的母亲节，他们很成功的被接受了，因为1911年时，几乎所有的州都已开始庆祝母亲节了。威尔生总统 (President Woodrow Wilson)亦於1914年发表官方声言，让母亲节成为全国性的节日，就是每年五月的第二个礼拜天这一天。
康乃馨 -----母亲花
直布罗陀海峡沟通了西边的大洋和世界上最大的陆间海地中海。海峡南北岸是两个很多方面迥然有异的国家--西班牙和摩洛哥，但它们同时尊崇康乃馨为自己的国花。康乃馨是世界上很多国家母亲节上的首选花卉。如果说人们对母亲的赞颂是一曲永远没有结尾的乐章，康乃馨则是这乐谱上跳动着的色彩 缤纷的悦耳音符。
透过倏然而过的时间隧道，可以知晓西班牙曾在摩洛哥的历史上雄居了多个世纪，是否在国花的选择上也使得昔日的殖民地产生了相应的认同，难以考究。但可以肯定，对慈爱母亲的颂扬可以超越民族、宗教、文化的诸多差异，成为人类具共性的最高境界的情感体味。地中海小国摩纳哥、中欧捷克和中美洲洪都拉斯等国也以康乃馨为国花，可能也是基于同样的文 化情结。
除了这些情感因素外，康乃馨的天生丽质应是其受宠的主要原因，或许是因其美丽而成为献给母亲的佳品。康乃馨是石竹科多年华草本植物;茎基部常木质化,茎叶光滑而稍具白粉。 叶条状披针形,全绿、灰绿色或草绿色。花通常单生或2-3朵簇 生，有香气，花色有白、黄、粉红、红紫及杂色等。各种栽培 品种灿若星辰，令人目不暇接。
康乃馨花色艳丽，香气较浓，花期长，是良好的切花材料，早已成为世界上颇具规模的著名商品花卉。其已获得认可的商品名称可开出一个令人叫绝的名单，显示出人们长期在该物种上为获得令人称奇的绝色和商业利润所花费的心血。

Halloween is an annual celebration, but just what is it actually a celebration of? And how did this peculiar custom originate? Is it, as some claim, a kind of demon worship? Or is it just a harmless vestige of some ancient pagan ritual?

The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.

One story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.

Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.

Probably a better explanation of why the Celts extinguished their fires was not to discourage spirit possession, but so that all the Celtic tribes could relight their fires from a common source, the Druidic fire that was kept burning in the Middle of Ireland, at Usinach.

Some accounts tell of how the Celts would burn someone at the stake who was thought to have already been possessed, as sort of a lesson to the spirits. Other accounts of Celtic history debunk these stories as myth.

The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. But in the first century AD, Samhain was assimilated into celebrations of some of the other Roman traditions that took place in October, such as their day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, which might explain the origin of our modern tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.

The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more ritualized. As belief in spirit possession waned, the practice of dressing up like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took on a more ceremonial role.

The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing their country's potato famine. At that time, the favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates.

The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century European custom called souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes," made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to heaven.

The Jack-o-lantern custom probably comes from Irish folklore. As the tale is told, a man named Jack, who was notorious as a drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an image of a cross in the tree's trunk, trapping the devil up the tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that, if he would never tempt him again, he would promise to let him down the tree.

According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways, but he was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked the devil. Instead, the devil gave him a single ember to light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer.

The Irish used turnips as their "Jack's lanterns" originally. But when the immigrants came to America, they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.

So, although some cults may have adopted Halloween as their favorite "holiday," the day itself did not grow out of evil practices. It grew out of the rituals of Celts celebrating a new year, and out of Medieval prayer rituals of Europeans. And today, even many churches have Halloween parties or pumpkin carving events for the kids. After all, the day itself is only as evil as one cares to make it.