It is interesting that in the two so different culture-Western and Chinese, they still have so many things in common.
Take holidays for example, the Chirstmas day in Western culture has almost the same status as Spring Festival in Chinese culture.Some people have write articles to discuss that. I still remember when I was at college, I used to write something about this topic.
Lately, because the Easter is coming,I learnt something about it and find out Easter is quite like Tomb Sweeping Day actually. Both of the festivals have two main purpose:
Easter:
1.Commemorate Jesus Christ
2.Celebrate the Spring
Tomb Sweeping Day:
1.Commemorate the ancestors
2.Celebrate the Spring
They both celebrate the good time of Spring. In chinese, they say the best time of a year is Spring.But, even in this part, the two cultures have differences,two.
Easter:
Celebrate the hope (Jesus Christ or Spring),and fertility (Eggs and rabbits)
Tomb Sweeping Day:
The Chinese will go out to nature, usually the kids will fly a kite and when the kite is high, they will cut the thread to let it go. It means the kite to take away the bad luck. In Chinese culture, praying for getting good luck and avoiding bad luck is always in the center of their religious activities.
However, in the first purpose of the two holidays, we can see the huge difference between the two cultures. The Western is memorize Jesus Christ who is a famous religious figure, who died for all the human being and revive on Easter day. So the Easter Day at the basic layer is quite religious thing. The whole secular parts like Easter eggs and Easter bunnies are comming from Middle East customs.When we study about the history we can see how religion take so important role in Western countries. Even the power of a nation is shared by church and the king.And even the king was authorized by the Pope.
While the Chinese culture is always secular since thousands of year ago. The confusian systems was not based on a religious background. It is formed at the time when the whole China is in a mess, 7 huge nations and hundreds of small natiosn are at war for hundreds of years. The confucian system tends to improve the knowledge and morality of people by themselves.
Every time, when the country is at war, and people suffers the most.And people want to believe in something so they may have the strength to live on.
So the Buddhism came in, and the native Taoism formed to fight againt Buddhism.
But throughout the Chinese history, Buddhism and Taoism never have advantage when facing Confucian.
The most important part of Confucian is the respect for ancestors,which can spread to respect for parents, elders, and loyal to emperor.The family is always in the core of the Chinese systems. In their minds,even the whole country is a huge family.
Nowadays, the world is more like a "Western" world, and other countries with different cultures have to make compromise when facing western cultures. But I'd like to see someday, different cultures on the Earth could be equal to communicate with each other.
Easter 2011 is on the corner, April 24 will soom come. What will you do to celebrate this happy holiday? Here are some tips which may be helpful for you:
Fun Easter Egg Hunt Games for Easter 2011
Easter Quotes for 2011 Easter E-cards or PowerPoint
Ideas on How to Celebrate Easter 2011 for Kids
