新世纪大学英语第三册快速阅读 课文翻译 UNIT one 1.How Is New Year's Day Celebrated Around the World? Celebrating New Year's Day is one of the oldest and most exciting customs around the world. Ringing church bells, blowing horns and ear-piercing shrieks echo throughout the world on this festive day. Whether visiting relatives or watching New Year's Day parades at home on the TV, welcoming the New Year is always a time of entertainment, celebration and resolution. Since this festival marks the beginning of the year, New Year's Day is thought of as a perfect time for a "clean start" or New Year's resolutions. People worldwide resolve to act better in the year just beginning than in the year just ended. No day has ever been observed on so many different dates or in so many different ways. All over the world, countries have their own special beliefs about what the New Year means to them. While many people in the United States observe New Year's Day on January 1st by throwing parties late into the night on the eve of December 31st, people in China celebrate this holiday for several days between January 17th and February 19th, at the time of the new moon. Lanterns illuminate the streets as the Chinese use thousands of lanterns to "light the way" for the New Year. The Chinese believe that evil spirits roam the earth at the New Year, so they let off firecrackers to scare off the spirits and seal their windows and doors with paper to keep the evil demons out. In Scotland, the New Year is called Hogmanay. In the villages of Scotland, barrels of tar are set afire and then rolled down the streets. This ritual symbolizes that the old year is burned up and the new one is allowed to ent...
