万圣节vs中元节

1.The introduction of HalloweenHalloween’s origin can be dated back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer, the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the New Year, the boundary between the world of living and the dead became blurred.On the night of October 31, which was the night before the New Year, it was believed that the ghosts of the dead came back to earth. Except for causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the existence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic immortals. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.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.2.The introduction of Chinese Ghost FestivalThe Ghost Festival, also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival in modern day, Zhong Yuan Jie or Yu Lan Jie (traditional Chinese: 盂蘭節) is a traditional Buddhist and Taoist festival held in Asian countries. In the Chinese calendar (a lunisolar calendar), the Ghost Festival is on the 15th night of the seventh month (14th insouthern China).In Chinese culture, the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day and the seventh month in general is regarded as theGhost Month (鬼月), in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm.The Buddhist origins of the festival can be traced back to a story that originally came from India, but later took on culturally Chinese overtones. Once there was a Buddhist monk named Mulian who was also known for having clairvoyant powers. And he used his power to find that his mother had been reborn in a lower realm, known as the Realm of Hungry Ghosts. His mother took on the form of a hungry ghost– so called because it could not eat due to its highly thin and fragile throat in which no food could pass through, yet it was always hungry because it had a fat belly. His mother had been greedy with the money he left her. He had instructed her to kindly host any Buddhist monks that ever came her way, but instead she withheld her kindness and her money. It was for this reason she was reborn in the realm of hungry ghosts. Mulian eased his mother's suffering by receiving the instructions of feeding pretas from the Buddha. The Buddha instructed Maudgalyāyana to place pieces of food on a clean plate, reciting a mantra seven times to bless the food, snap his fingers to call out to the deceased and finally tip the food onto clean ground. By doing so, the preta's hunger would be relieved. Through these merits, his mother was able to be reborn as a dog under the care of a noble family.On the fifteenth day the realms of Heaven and Hell and the realm of the living are open and both Taoists and Buddhists would perform rituals to transmute and absolve the sufferings of the deceased. Intrinsic to the Ghost Month is veneration of the dead, where traditionally the filial piety of descendants extends to their ancestors even after their deaths. Activities during the month would include preparing ritualistic food offerings, burning incense, and burning joss paper, a papier-mâché form of material items such as clothes, gold and other fine goods for the visiting spirits of the ancestors. Elaborate meals (often vegetarian meals) would be served with empty seats for each of the deceased in the family treating the deceased as if they are still living. Ancestor worship is what distinguishes Qingming Festival from Ghost Festival because the latter includes paying respects to all deceased, including the same and younger generations, while the former only includes older generations. Other festivities may include, buying and releasing miniature paper boats and lanterns on water, which signifies giving directions to the lost ghosts and spirits of the ancestors and other deities.3. Contrast on Ghost Culture between Halloween and Chinese Ghost FestivalThere are many ghosts in Chinese culture; they have been worshipped by the Ch inese for a few thousand years. Even Confucius said, “Respect ghosts and gods, but keep away from them.” And t he Chinese people often say, “If you believe it, there will be, but if you don’t, there will not.”We think that most Chinese believe that ghosts exist. For instance, people have imaginatively transfigured their real life experiences into visions of the unknown world. Just like the Chinese legendary hell, for example, is governed by a king in a completely bureaucratic system. The king of the underg round takes charge of people’s lives, keeping a book that spells out the exact time of everybody’s death.While in the West mainly through Carnival to scare away the evil spirits, and the living dead souls come and take away the fear of health, so people in this day put out the fire, candlelight, so that the soul can not find the living dead, again dressed up as ghosts and goblins to scare away the dead souls.Speaking of ghost images, those in Chinese culture are really different from those in western countries. For example, in Chinese culture, a ghost is usually a beautiful young woman whose face is covered by long black hair, who dies due to misfortune, then comes back for revenge. The more badly one is wronged, the more powerful he or she becomes after death.In western countries, those images usually refer to monsters such as vampires, ghosts, skeletons, witches, and devils, or in more recent years such science fiction-inspired characters as aliens and superheroes.From what we have discussed, we can easily see the similarities and differences between Chinese culture and Western culture. As globalization has been widely taken place, we should pay enough attention to the cultures both at home and abroad, that’s why we should learn Intercultural Communication well to have a better comprehension of the world. However, we still have to bear in mind that we should get rid of what is bad and absorb what is good. It’s not only a great challenge for us but also a shortcut to progress.。