The Year That Has Gone The month of December is a big month for celebrations and festivals in the west and increasingly these are impinging on the traditional end-of-year attitudes of Chinese people, especially the young. I am not at all convinced that this is a good thing for most people and I say this from my own experience.
Traditionally in Scotland, my homeland,the only major festival of the whole year wasthe seeing in of the New Year on Hogmanay and the first-footing that continued throughout the early hours and days of the welcome arrival. If there was any commercial gain tobe made it was made by the whisky distillers for almost everything else was made at homein a traditional way. The similarities with the celebration of Spring Festival in the countryside in Shandong are in fact quite striking, probably because agriculturalcommunities throughout the world enjoy awinter break from their labours and look forward to the coming of spring. As childrenwe stayed up till after midnight, listened forthe bells which heralded the new year, had avery daring sip of whisky mixed with hotwater and sugar and went to bed delighted beyond measure.
Within a few years, the influence of the"English" festival of Christmas began to extend even into our rural backwater and webegan to hear of a mysterious character called Santa Claus who brought gifts for children(well for good children anyway). My parents,who could ill afford such luxury found themselves bowing to fashion and we hung upour stocking on Christmas Eve, just as they didin the story books, expecting some reward.The slippery slope had begun.
Two generations later, Christmas is atleast as important for most Scots as New Year is and certainly costs them as much or more.The traditional first-footing or going out to visit all your neighbours and have a dram with them to welcome the New Year has given way in many places to parties in hotels. Most municipal governments (most famously that of Edinburgh) now organize an open-air celebration of Hogmanay with famous recording stars and entertainers which attract most of the young, while the older generation stay at home and watch the special programme on television.
This same pattern is now being repeated in China, where the commercial pressure to get everyone, especially children and young people, to celebrate Christmas by the buying of expensive gifts and attending extravagant parties grows stronger year by year. Ten Christmases ago, I went as a guest of our university to a hotel in Jinan which was havinga special celebration with a real Father Christmas. Everyone and his wife - and above all his child - was there and the Father Christmas character in his Coca-Cola red and white robes was a major attraction. Now there is scarcely a restaurant, never mind a hotel, inthe city that doesn"t provide its own Christmas party complete with the smiling old man. The first store in Jinan to have a Christmas choir was also the first to have its staff working all through the Spring Festival holiday but its example was soon followed by all the others.As prosperity has increased, many city-folk prefer to go out to eat with their friends rather than making jiaozi together in their own kitchen. Recently I asked my writing classes to discuss the topic of "Christmas or Spring Festival" and discovered that a majority of my students prefer Christmas mainly because they like having a good time with their class-mates rather than "being bored" at home with their family. This is good news for the business community but sets alarm bells ringing for those who value China"s ancient traditionalfestivals.
Christmas, of course, is an important festival for Christians all over the world and that includes those who live in China. However, it would be a sad day, in my humble opinion, were it simply to become a harvest festival for the entrepreneurial class and a global substitute for the traditional festivals of ordinary people. I wish you all a happy new year.
在西方，12月份是重要的节庆之月， 这种风气也逐渐影响了中国人对待岁末 时间的态度，尤其是年轻人。以我自己 的经验看，对大部分人来说这不见得是 什么好事。
在我的家乡苏格兰，传统上，一年 之内惟一的盛大节庆活动是迎接新年到 来的Hogmanay节。从新年夜到来之前的 几小时开始，这种庆祝活动要一直持续 几天时间。节庆期间，惟一能从商业活 动中获利的只有酿造威士忌的人，因为 除了威士忌之外，所有其他节庆活动的 物品，人们都是按照传统方式在家里自 己弄的。在这点上，苏格兰庆祝 Hogmanay节与山东纳农村庆祝春节有惊 人的相似之处，这也可能是因为全世界 的农业地区在农忙之后，都要在冬日里 休整并期盼来年春天早日来临的缘故吧。 在我小的时候，新年夜，我们都要熬到 半夜，听了宣告新年来临的钟声后，喝 点搀了热水和糖的威士忌，然后怀着无 法形容的愉悦去睡觉。
也就在几年时间吧，“英国人的节日” ――圣诞节传到了我们那里的乡下。我 们开始听说一个神秘的圣诞老人会给孩 子们(当然是好孩子啦)带来礼物。我 父母尽管没钱去应付这些奢侈品，但是， 也不得不屈服于潮流。于是，我们在圣 诞节的晚上也像故事书里写的那样，挂 起了袜子，盼望着能得到一些好处。从 此，这种谈不上多么好的规矩就无休止 地发展起来。
经过了两代人后，对大多数苏格兰 人来说，圣诞节至少是和新年一样重要 的节日了，而且我们花在圣诞节上的钱 是越来越多。在很多地方，在新年第一 天到邻居家里拜年或与他们一起举杯同 庆新年到来的传统都被改成了到酒店里 聚会庆贺。部分市政府(爱丁堡尤其如 此)现在还组织露天活动来欢庆 Hogmanay节。欢庆活动上，要邀请一些 影视明星或娱乐明星来吸引年轻人参加。 年纪大的人，大都呆在家里看电视上的 节目。
这种情况现在中国又重复上演了。 受商业的推波助澜，大家(尤其是孩子 和年轻人)购买昂贵的礼物和参加奢华 聚会来庆祝圣诞节的风气变得一年比一 年浓。十年前的一个圣诞节，我受所在 的大学邀请，到济南的一家酒店参加了 圣诞庆祝活动。庆祝活动上的主角是一 个穿红色衣服的圣诞老人。到场的大都 是一家三口――丈夫、妻子和孩子。圣 诞老人穿着红白相间的袍子，看起来像 个可口可乐罐子，很是招摇。现在，圣 诞节的时候，济南几乎家家餐馆(更何 况宾馆了)都要举行圣诞活动，而且活 动上都有自己的圣诞老人出现，供人们 娱乐。
济南第一家在圣诞节期间举行合唱 活动的商店同时也开了春节期间让员工 不间断工作的先河。但是，这种做法很 快被别的商家学会了。随着条件的改善， 现在许多城里的人都喜欢和朋友到外面 吃饭，而不是在自己家里的厨房里包饺 子了。最近，在我教的写作课上，我要 学生们围绕“圣诞节与春节”的话题展 开讨论，结果发现，大部分学生更愿意 过圣诞节，因为他们宁愿与同学在一起 玩，也不愿意呆在家里过春节，因为在 家里没意思。对做生意的人来说，这绝 对是个好消息，但是却为那些珍爱中国 古老传统节日的人敲响了警钟。
对全世界的基督徒和中国的教徒而 言，圣诞节当然是个重要的节日。但是， 依我看，如果圣诞节仅仅是生意人大肆 捞钱的日子，让它来取代大众的传统节 日，那可真是悲哀透顶。所以，我还是 祝你新年快乐吧。