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"We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas…"Have you
heard that song? Yup! It's Christmas time! This Christmas, I stayed with my
"host family"1. It was an amazing experience to see how a typical American
family would celebrate the biggest western festival of the year.
Christmas, like our Spring Festival, has a meaning in itself. Christmas
Day, which is on December 25, is the birthday of Jesus Christ--the son of God.
That's why it is called Christmas. On that day, Christians would get together
with their families to celebrate the birthday of Jesus. But nowadays, the
religious meaning of Christmas has become less emphasized. To many families, it
is just a time of family reunion and the ever-exciting present-giving.
Our school had been on winter vacation since December 11. I stayed at my
friend, Stephen Stapczynski's house--his family was my "host family". Although
Christmas was still more than ten days ahead, the festive spirit had already
been teeming everywhere. The Christmas tree had already been set up, and on
every windowsill, there were Christmas lights. On the first day I arrived at
their house, Stephen and I helped Mrs. Stapczynski put decorations on the
Christmas tree. The tree looked so nice with all the lights on and the beautiful
ornaments dangling from its branches.
As Christmas came closer, the whole neighborhood had made preparations too.
Some people would hold parties at their houses, inviting all their neighbors to
come. So every night, if you went out, you would see a long line of cars parked
in front of some house--a party's on!
What's more, the Christmas decorations that some people put on their
windows and in gardens were just amazing. On one night, we went out in our car
for a "tour of lights". There was one street that was so famous for its lights
that it got its way into the local paper. We had a hard time finding the
well-hidden street, but it turned out to be worth the effort. Lights shone
brightly in front of nearly every house, on trees, bushes, doors,
windows…everywhere, taking different shapes, making it seem almost like daytime.
Huge inflatable figures in the front gardens were waving to us: there were Santa
Clauses2, of course, chuckling merrily away; and there were also other Christmas
figures, like Rudolph3--the red-nosed reindeer--with his red nose gleaming ever
so brightly; even Bart Simpson--a character in the famous comedy The
Simpsons--had joined the jolly party, wearing a Santa's hat. The street set off
a lot of "ooh"s and "aah"s inside the car.4 When we left, there was a line of
cars in the street, all there to see the lights.
Christmas is the time for exchanging presents. Stephen and Niko had been
thinking about their Christmas lists (a list of things they wish "Santa"to give
them for Christmas) for a long time. I didn't want to ask for anything, but the
Stapczynskis were so kind to "force"me make one list as well (Mr. Stapczynski
told me if I didn't make one he would chop off my legs). So I wrote down a
couple of things that I would like to have, and gave the list to them--sorry, my
mistake--to Santa.
Finally, Christmas Eve came. There was a special Christmas service at the
church at 6 p.m. It was certainly a very interesting experience for me. The
priest started the service reading and sang out extractions from a holy
book--The Divine Liturgy. For several times, we would stand up and pray.
Sometimes, the church choir would start singing. The atmosphere was very quiet
and holy. Then there was a ceremony called "The Receiving Communion". People
waited in line to "receive"a spoonful of food from the priest. It was a very
special Christmas tradition. The food was made from bread and wine. The bread
represents the body of Jesus, and the wine represents his blood. After this
ceremony, the priest had a speech. He reminded us not to forget the true meaning
of Christmas, and let Jesus really live inside us--that is, to love the people
around us wholeheartedly. I think that no matter if you are a Christian or not,
this principle should be part of our lives. After the priest finished his
speech, the part that I enjoyed most came: Christmas carols5. Christmas carols
are songs that people sing at Christmas, such as "Jingle Bells", "We Wish You a
Merry Christmas", "Silent Night"and so on. Some were very merry, others sounded
quite holy, but all of them were beautiful. I closed my eyes, and let all the
peacefulness and happiness that were in the songs flow through me. What a
feeling it was!
We went to sleep earlier that day for we had to get up early on Christmas
Day to open our presents. Sure enough, when I was still half-way during a sweet
dream, Stephen burst into my room and told me to get up and open presents. There
were a huge pile of presents under the Christmas tree, and there was such a
mysterious mist shrouding them that made me eager to see what they all were. So
one by one, we went through all the presents. Mr. and Mrs. Stapczynski had
bought me everything I had written on my Christmas list--and a lot more! I got
music CDs, film DVDs, clothes, books… I was very happy, and I didn't know how to
express my appreciation for what they had done for me. Stephen and Niko had
gotten a lot of presents too, and they had already been trying out their new
games!
In the afternoon, we went to Mrs. Stapczynski's brother, Uncle Stan's
house. They had prepared a marvelous meal for us. A lot of their friends and
relatives also came. I saw Stephen and Niko's grandparents, Yiayia and Papou
(words of grandma and grandpa in Greek--Mrs. Stapczynski's parents came from
Greece, so they like the boys using Greek words to call them). They were very
kind to me, and treated me just like one of their family members. We had a very
luxurious meal, consisting of turkey, beef, pork, and all sorts of other
food.
After the meal, when all the stomachs were full and everyone was feeling
drowsy6 from all the food, we just sat around the table and chatted, just like
what we Chinese people do at the Spring Festival. After all, Christmas, like the
Spring Festival, is a time for us to get away from our busy lives, a time for
family gathering, and a time to have some fun.
Notes:
1. host family: 寄住家庭或接待家庭。学校安排那些圣诞节仍留在美国的国际学生住在当地的寄住家庭中。
2. Santa Claus: 圣诞老人。
3.
Rudolph: 每到圣诞节，圣诞老人乘坐驯鹿雪撬给孩子们送礼物，其中指路的驯鹿的名字叫Rudolph，它的鼻子是红色的，所以称其为"red-nose
reindeer"。
4. 街上的景象使车中响起一片惊奇的声音。set off: 激起，引起。
5. carol: (圣诞)颂歌。
6. drowsy: 困倦的。 |
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发表于 2016-7-10 18:32:43