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英語篇 #15 中秋節的應節用語
2022-09-11
1. Can be called the “Moon Festival”, “Mid-Autumn Festival” or “Mooncake Festival”
2. Why do we celebrate the Moon Festival?
● Ancient Chinese emperors worshiped the moon in autumn to thank it for the harvest 收穫；收成 . Ordinary people 普通人 took the Mid-Autumn Festival to be a celebration of their hard work and harvests. Nowadays, people mainly celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival as a time for family reunions 團聚.
3. Prepositions
● At Mid-Autumn Festival OR On Mid-Autumn Festival
● This is very debatable 有爭議的
● At Christmas / On Christmas Day
4. What are moon cakes made of?
● Traditional mooncakes feature base fillings of red lotus paste 蓮蓉, white lotus paste 白蓮蓉 or red bean paste紅豆蓉, with 0-4 salted duck egg yolks 咸蛋黄 embedded within.
● They are high in cholesterol 膽固醇
5. Mooncakes are mainly round to represent the full moon. In Chinese culture, roundness symbolizes 象徵 completeness and togetherness.
● Chinese sayings:
- 人月兩團圓 - (意譯) The reunion of people and the moon.
- 團團圓圓 - The unity of the family.
● In English, we may simply say:
- Happy reunion!
- Happy gathering!
6. Speaking of roundness, I’ve noticed that it is quite hard to buy big, round dining tables in the U.S. But it is easy to buy them in Hong Kong.
● In the U.S., families always have long tables. The head of the family takes the head seat. You pass the food around and scoop 舀 the food onto your own plate.
● When I went to restaurants in the U.S., it felt a little odd 奇怪 when I told the server that I was going to share the food with whoever I was dining with.
● But in Hong Kong, we share everything. I like the turntable 轉盤 in the middle.
● Because of the pandemic, we are now used to using 公筷. How would you say them in English? Public chopsticks? Serving spoon/ chopsticks.
7. Other food that we eat at Mid-Autumn Festival
● 柚子 Is it called “grapefruit?” / Pomelo
- I remember I used to wear the skin as a hat.
- Thai pomelo salad
● 湯圓 People may translate this as “rice dumpling” but it actually means 粽子/ Glutinous rice ball
● 芋頭 Taro
2. Why do we celebrate the Moon Festival?
● Ancient Chinese emperors worshiped the moon in autumn to thank it for the harvest 收穫；收成 . Ordinary people 普通人 took the Mid-Autumn Festival to be a celebration of their hard work and harvests. Nowadays, people mainly celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival as a time for family reunions 團聚.
3. Prepositions
● At Mid-Autumn Festival OR On Mid-Autumn Festival
● This is very debatable 有爭議的
● At Christmas / On Christmas Day
4. What are moon cakes made of?
● Traditional mooncakes feature base fillings of red lotus paste 蓮蓉, white lotus paste 白蓮蓉 or red bean paste紅豆蓉, with 0-4 salted duck egg yolks 咸蛋黄 embedded within.
● They are high in cholesterol 膽固醇
5. Mooncakes are mainly round to represent the full moon. In Chinese culture, roundness symbolizes 象徵 completeness and togetherness.
● Chinese sayings:
- 人月兩團圓 - (意譯) The reunion of people and the moon.
- 團團圓圓 - The unity of the family.
● In English, we may simply say:
- Happy reunion!
- Happy gathering!
6. Speaking of roundness, I’ve noticed that it is quite hard to buy big, round dining tables in the U.S. But it is easy to buy them in Hong Kong.
● In the U.S., families always have long tables. The head of the family takes the head seat. You pass the food around and scoop 舀 the food onto your own plate.
● When I went to restaurants in the U.S., it felt a little odd 奇怪 when I told the server that I was going to share the food with whoever I was dining with.
● But in Hong Kong, we share everything. I like the turntable 轉盤 in the middle.
● Because of the pandemic, we are now used to using 公筷. How would you say them in English? Public chopsticks? Serving spoon/ chopsticks.
7. Other food that we eat at Mid-Autumn Festival
● 柚子 Is it called “grapefruit?” / Pomelo
- I remember I used to wear the skin as a hat.
- Thai pomelo salad
● 湯圓 People may translate this as “rice dumpling” but it actually means 粽子/ Glutinous rice ball
● 芋頭 Taro
