中国传统文化词汇（一）
在中国悠久的历史中，传统文化得到了持续的传承与发展，也塑造了中国文化有别于世界其它文化的特点。在将中国文化译介到其它语言里，如何准确以及正确地用其他语言表达，是一个极大的挑战。
不过，经过几代翻译者的努力，很多中国传统文化词汇都形成了较为固定的表达方式，也获得了英语本族语人士的认可。
翻吧君收集了一些有关中国传统文化的词汇，在此与大家共享和学习。以下是第一部分中国传统节日。
中国传统节日Traditional Chinese Festivals
The Spring Festival 春节
The Chinese Spring Festival falls on the very first day of the Chinese Lunar year. The celebration of the Spring Festival, otherwise known as the Chinese New Year, starts from the first day of the first lunar month and ends on the Lantern Festival, that is, the fifteenth of the month. The Spring Festival to the Chinese is what Christmas to the Westerners (中国人过春节相当于西方人过圣诞节).
The Spring Festival Eve 除夕
The Spring Festival Eve, or the Chinese New Year’s Eve, is call the Danian Sanshi （大年三十）in Chinese. It is a time of jubilance, with eyeful of Spring Festival couplets, earful of loud firecrackers, and the kitchen full of yummy stuff cooking on the stove. Wherever they are, people will hurry back home for their family reunion on the eve.
The Spring Festival Eve Dinner 年夜饭
The Spring Festival Eve Dinner is known as the Dinner of Reunion. On the Eve, children away from home will all come back to enjoy a tableful of delicacies together with their parents. People in the north prefer jiaozi, the southerners like tangyuan, sweet round dumplings to indicate family reunion, and niangao, which means “going higher and higher in the coming year”.
Spring Festival Couples 贴春联
It has been a tradition for the Chinese to paste Spring Festival couples on the doors during the Festival. Words of auspiciousness are written in the couples, which are called duilian对联, or the Pair Couplets, because the words on both couplets should be equal in number, parallel in form, and attuned in meaning. Sometimes people also paste a hengpi横批, a horizontal scroll bearing an inscription, above the couples.
Gift Money 压岁钱
On the festive occasion, young children will pay New Year calls on and express their best wishes to their elders who, in return, will offer them yasuiqian 压岁钱, money given to children as a Spring Festival gift. The money is usually wrapped up in red paper – a symbol of good fortune.
Setting off firecrackers 放鞭炮
Part of the Spring Festival celebration is to set off firecracker, which is meant to add joy to the festivity. People wish that, by setting off firecrackers, good luck would come to them in the coming year.
Paying New Year Calls 拜年
The Spring Festival is also a time to pay festive visits and say good wishes to one another among relatives, friends and neighbours.
Vising Temple Fairs赶庙会
During the Festival, people visit temple fairs, where an assortment of entertaining performances takes place, including Yandko （秧歌） (a rirual folk dance popular in north China), acrobatics（杂技） and folk art shows. Varieties of snacks and commodity exchanges （商品交易）are also the integral parts of the fair.
The Lantern Festival 元宵节
The 15th day of the first lunar month is the Chinese Lantern Festival, which coincides with the first full-moon night of the year (这一天正好是新年的第一个月圆之夜). The major activities of the day include watching painted lanterns, solving riddles, setting off fireworks, and eating yuanxiao元宵(sweet dumplings) made of glutinous [ˈglu:tinəs](粘的，胶装的) rice flour （糯米面，糯米粉）.
Eating Yuanxiao 吃元宵
Eating yuanxiao （元宵）on the day of the Lantern Festival symbolizes family reunion and happiness. Yuanxiao are made with glutinous rice flour dough, stuffed with a variety of food such as red bean paste, sesame, mixed nutlets with sugar. Minced meat is another favored flavor (元宵用糯米粉包馅制成，馅儿有豆沙、芝麻、各类果仁加白糖，还有肉糜馅等). In southern China, people also eat tangyuan（汤圆）(like yuanxiao元宵).
Watching Painted Lanterns 赏花灯
On the night of the Lantern Festival, lines of painted lanterns are hung around the courtyard and along both sides of the street. The colorful lights against the full moon create quite a visual feast for people to enjoy (人们观灯赏月，其乐融融).
Solving Lantern Riddles 猜灯谜
Solving riddles written or printed on lanterns is another way of entertaining visitors on the night.
Qingming Festival 清明节
The Qingming or Ching Ming Festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day in English, is a 47 32304 47 15287 0 0 4268 0 0:00:07 0:00:03 0:00:04 4267 traditional Chinese festival on the first day of the fifth solar term of the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar. This makes it the 15th day after the Spring Equinox, either 4 or 5 April in a given year. Other common translations include Chinese Memorial Day and Ancestors' Day.
Honour the ancestors祭拜祖先
The Qingming Festival is an opportunity for celebrants to remember and honour their ancestors at grave sites. Young and old pray before the ancestors, sweep the tombs and offer food, tea, wine, chopsticks, joss paper, and/or libations to the ancestors.
Family outing: 踏青
On Qingming, people go on family outings, start the spring plowing, sing, and dance.
Put willow branches on the gate/front door 门前插杨柳
Some people carry willow branches with them on Qingming or put willow branches on their gates and/or front doors. They believe that willow branches help ward off the evil spirit that wanders on Qingming.
The Dragon Boat Festival 端午节
The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth month on the Chinese Lunar Calendar. The story goes that the day is kept in memory of the patriotic poet Qu Yuan 屈原who died more than 2000 years ago. It’s also a day to pray for agricultural harvests as well as to drive pestilences [ˈpestiləns] away (同时也是人们祈求农业丰收，驱除瘟疫的节日).
Qu Yuan (339BC? ～ 278BC?) 屈原
Qu Yuan 屈原, a patriotic poet of the Chu State 楚国in ancient China, is greatly respected by people of all times, for both his fine poetry and noble character. It was on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in the year 278 BC after the falling of the Chu State （楚国） that Qu Yuan （屈原）gave his life to his beloved motherland by drowning himself in the river (因楚国国都失陷，屈原悲愤地投江而死).
Dragon Boat Racing 赛龙舟
The dragon boat is made of wood, with mythical dragon head and dragon tail decorations on it. Dragon boat racing originally showed people’s wish to rescue Qu Yuan（屈原）from drowning, and gradually became a popular competitive mass sport (赛龙舟最初是表达屈原投江后，人们寻救他的迫切心情，后来逐渐成为端午节流行的一项民间体育竞技活动).
Eating Zongzi 吃粽子
Legend has it that in order to keep the fish away from eating Qu Yuan’s body, people would throw rice wrapped in bamboo or reed [ri:d]（芦苇） leaves into the water to feed the fish. That’s how the tradition of eating zongzi 粽子(rice dumplings wrapped in leaves) around the Dragon Boat Festival started. A zongzi （粽子）is usually made in the shape of a triangular or square lump (粽子外形为三角形或四角形), wrapped in large bamboo leaves. The ingredients are mostly glutinous rice, beans, Chinese dates, or pork.
Hanging Moxa 挂艾蒿
Moxa leaves are hung in front of every household during the Dragon Boat Festival in order to expel[ɪk'spɛl]（驱逐） evil spirits and to relieve people’s internal heat or fever (驱邪解毒). The sweet scent of the herb, however, can also repel flies and mosquitoes, and purify the air around the house.
Qixi Festival：七夕节
The Qixi Festival (七夕节), also known as the Qiqiao Festival (乞巧节), is a Chinese festival that celebrates the annual meeting of the cowherd and weaver girl in Chinese mythology. It falls on the 7th day of the 7th month on the Chinese calendar. It is sometimes called the Double Seventh Festival, the Chinese Valentine's Day, the Night of Sevens, or the Magpie Festival.
The Moon Festival 中秋节
The Moon Festival or the Mid-autumn Festival falls on the 15th of the eighth month of the Chinese Lunar year. It is also called the Festival of Family Reunion 团圆节, as the full moon around that time very well symbolizes harvests and reunion. It is a time for family members to get together and savour['seivə]尽情享受moon cakes as they admire the full moon.
The Moon Cake 月饼
The Cake of Reunion 团圆饼 is another name for the moon cakes. Made by wheat flour dough and stuffed with a wide variety, sweet or salty, moon cakes are both the must-eat food and major gift items around the Moon Festival (月饼是中秋节人们互赠的主要礼品，也是节日的重要食品).
The Double Ninth Festival 重阳节
Chongyang 重阳— the Double Ninth Festival, also known as the Senior Citizens’ Day 老人节, is on the ninth of the ninth lunar month. As “nine” is regarded as a number of the Yang (positive or masculine by nature in Chinese philosophy), two “nines” together makes a Chongyang, or Double Yang (中国古人把九称为阳数，阳在中国哲学中属阳性，代表男性阳刚特质，所以九月九叫做重阳). On this day, people will go climbing mountains, drinking, and admiring chrysanthemum [kri'sænθəməm] 菊花 flowers. More importantly, it’s a time for children to show some tender loving care to the seniors or to show filial ['fɪlɪəl] piety ['paɪətɪ] for their parents. （filial peity 孝顺，孝心）
Climbing the Heights to Keep Away Troubles 登高避灾
The Double Ninth Festival is in autumn, when married women are supposed to observe the ritual of visiting their parents and taking them to do some mountain-climbing, so that they could enjoy the seasonal beauty together.
Appreciating the Chrysanthemums 赏菊
The chrysanthemums are in full blossom at this time of the year, and the great variety of the flower has long been the object of admiration for the Chinese (品种繁多的菊花在秋日盛开，观赏菊花是流传已久的节日风俗).
Offering Sacrifices to the Goddess of the Sea 祭海神
The ninth of the ninth lunar month happens to be the day when Mazu （妈祖）, the Goddess of the Sea, ascended to the heaven. Grand ceremonies are held for her on the day in China’s coastal cities including the Taiwan Region.
The God of Longevity [lɔn'dʒevəti] （寿星老） the guardian of long-life（长寿的保护神）
Laba Festival 腊八节
The Laba (腊八) is a traditional Chinese holiday celebrated on the eighth day of the La Month (or Layue 腊月), the twelfth month of the Chinese calendar. It is customary on this day to eat Laba Congee. The Laba Festival had not been on a fixed day until the Southern and Northern dynasties, when it was influenced by Buddhism and got a fixed time on the eighth day of twelfth month, which was also the enlightenment day of the Buddha. Therefore, many customs of the Laba Festival are related to Buddhism. It corresponds directly to the Japanese Rohatsu and the South Asian Bodhi Day.
Laba congee/porridge 腊八粥
The Laba congee/porridge is not only a yummy traditional rite in China to mark the laba festival but also a delicacy good for health. Laba congee for the imperial court would have been made of cream, lamb, various mixed grains, dried red dates（红枣干）, longan（桂圆）, chestnuts（栗子）, peanuts（花生）, water caltrop（菱角）, walnuts（胡桃）, raisins（葡萄干）, melon seeds（瓜子）, and haw jelly（山楂）.
来源：网络