Chinese and foreign folk culture

Folklore is a patterned living culture created, enjoyed and handed down by the people in their survival activities for the purpose of sustaining and developing their lives. Folklore is a way of life of the people, which enables them to live not only in the material world but also in the spiritual world.

(I) Chinese Folklore

1. The Twenty-four Seasons of China

China divides the year into twenty-four seasons according to the law of alternation of spring, summer, autumn and winter in the four seasons of the year, which are: Lichun, rain, hibernation, equinoxes, chingmings, rains, summer, small fullness, mango seeding, summer solstice, summer heat, summer heat, fall, heatstroke, white dew, fall equinox, cold dew, frost, winter, snow, snow, winter solstice, small snow, snow, winter solstice. The first two days of the year are the winter solstice, the winter solstice, the winter solstice, the winter cold, and the winter cold.

2. Chinese Tea Ceremony

"Tea Ceremony" is a kind of life etiquette using tea as a medium, and is also considered a way to cultivate one's body and mind, which enhances friendship, tastes life, and achieves spiritual enjoyment through making, enjoying, and drinking tea. The tea ceremony first originated in China. Chinese people at least in the Tang or before the Tang, the world's first tea drinking as a way to cultivate the body and temperament, when the people of the tea drinking environment, etiquette, operation and other tea drinking rituals are very concerned about, there are a number of agreed-upon rules and rituals.

3. Traditional dietary practices of the Chinese people

The traditional dietary practices of the Chinese people are based on plant foods. The staple food is grains and cereals, and the supplementary food is vegetables, plus a small amount of meat. The predominance of hot, cooked food is also a major feature of Chinese dietary practices. The Chinese diet has traditionally been known for its wide range of ingredients and exquisite cooking techniques. In terms of eating style, Chinese dietary customs are accustomed to the polyvalent system, which has an early origin and is a reflection of the importance that the Chinese attach to blood kinship and family concepts in the way they eat. In terms of eating utensils, one of the major features of Chinese food customs is the use of chopsticks. Chopsticks were called chopsticks (zhu) in ancient times and have a long history in China.

Five grains: millet, jigen, wheat, beans and hemp (north); millet, jigen, wheat, beans and rice (south).

4. China's eight cuisines

Cuisine, also known as the "Gang Cuisine", refers to the selection of materials, cutting, cooking and other skills, after a long period of evolution and a self-contained system, with a distinctive local flavor characteristics, and socially recognized Chinese cuisine genre. China's cuisine refers to a set of self-contained cooking techniques and flavors that have evolved over a long period of time in a certain region due to differences in climate, geography, history, material production and dietary customs, and are recognized as local dishes throughout the country. Lu, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Guangdong four major cuisines formed earlier, and later, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan, Hui and other local dishes have gradually become famous, so the formation of China's "eight major cuisines".

5. Tang clothes

Tang clothes originally refers to the Tang Dynasty Hanfu, is a traditional 襦, skirt, this style is generally popular in the early Tang Dynasty, basically inherited from the East Han Dynasty since the traditional Chinese women's clothing under the clothing system. In the modern sense of the term, Tang clothing refers to Chinese-style clothing. The traditional Chinese style of clothing worn by the "Tang people" in "Chinatown" is called "Tang Clothing". At the Shanghai APEC meeting in 2.01, China, as the host, invited the leaders of the Asian and Pacific economies to wear "Tang clothes", which set off a new trend of "Tang clothes" that was "peaceful and festive", reflecting a new trend of "Tang clothes". The new wave of "Tang clothes" reflects the fusion of traditional dress from before the Qing Dynasty with modern dress styles.

6. Chinese cheongsam

From the 1920s to the end of the 1940s, Chinese cheongsam has been popular for more than 20 years, and the style has been changed several times, such as the height of the collar, the length of the sleeves, the height of the slits, so that the cheongsam completely got rid of the old style, changed the old appearance of the Chinese women who have been binding the breasts and wrapping the arms for a long time, and let the female physique and the beauty of curves to be fully displayed. Since the 30's, cheongsam has almost become the standard dress for Chinese women, and it is worn by women, students, workers, and wives of dignitaries. The cheongsam even became the dress for social occasions and diplomatic activities. Later, the cheongsam also spread abroad, for other women to follow suit.

7. Chinese residential characteristics

Chinese residential is an important type of traditional architecture in China, China's ancient architecture is an important component of the folk building system. The types of China's folk dwellings can be said to be countless, including Beijing's courtyard houses, Mongolian yurts, kilns in Shaanxi and Henan, and earth buildings in Fujian. Beijing courtyard house is actually a kind of courtyard building, the so-called courtyard, that is, a courtyard on all sides are built with houses, four houses, the center of the courtyard, which is the courtyard. The whole family in the courtyard, the people living in the courtyard is very comfortable, the door is closed at night, very quiet, suitable for family-centered reunion life. Beijing courtyard houses are typical and representative of traditional Chinese residential architecture.

8. Drinking on Major Festivals

Chinese people drink on several major festivals of the year, there are corresponding drinking activities, such as the Dragon Boat Festival, "calamus wine", the Chrysanthemum Festival, "chrysanthemum wine", New Year's Eve, "New Year's Wine". New Year's Eve drink "wine". In some places, such as jiangxi folk, spring after inserting seedlings, to get together and drink, celebrate the harvest more to drink, when the banquet is over, often is "home to help the drunken return". Generally speaking, the New Year's Eve dinner is the most sumptuous feast of the year, and it is the most important festival for Chinese people, the day of family reunion, and the wine in the New Year's Eve dinner is indispensable. After the New Year's Eve dinner, some people still have the custom of drinking wine and keeping vigil. The first day of the first month, some places, people generally do not go out, from the beginning of the second day of the first month, only to start stringing, there are guests at the door, the host will have long been prepared for the exquisite wine dishes on the table, pouring wine, *** congratulations on the New Year. There are also September 9 Chrysanthemum Festival drink "chrysanthemum wine", to the elderly birthday drink "birthday wine", had a child full moon drink "full moon wine" and other customs.

The Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches (天干地支)

referred to as the "Stems and Branches". In the ancient Chinese calendar, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, C, N, N, K is known as the "ten heavenly stems", Zi, ugly, Yin, D, E, S, N, W, W, Shen, You, H, H, H, H, Hai called "twelve earthly branches". Ten dry and twelve branches in order to match, composed of sixty basic units, the two in a fixed order to match each other, composed of the stem and branch chronology. From the oracle bones unearthed in Yinxu, the heavenly stems and earthly branches were mainly used in China in ancient times to record the day, in addition, they were also used to record the month, the year, the time and so on.

(B) Foreign Folklore

1. Blowing out candles on birthdays

The custom of blowing out candles on birthdays originated in ancient Greece. In ancient Greece, people believed in Artemis, the goddess of the moon. In her annual birthday celebration, people always have to put on the altar for the honey cake and a lot of lighted candles, forming a sacred atmosphere, in order to show the moon goddess special feelings of reverence. With the passage of time, the ancient Greeks in the celebration of a child's birthday, but also love to set the table with pastries and other things, and put a lot of lighted small candles on the top, while adding a new activity - blowing out these lighted candles. They believe that lit candles have mystical powers, and that if the birthday child makes a wish in his heart and then blows out all the candles in one breath, then the child's good wishes will come true.

2. The discovery and spread of coffee

In the Caffa mountains of Ethiopia, Africa, there grew a bunch of jammy red fruit. One day, a shepherd's herd of sheep came to the mountain behind the woods, nibbling on those saucy fruits became alive and excited. Other sheep ate some of the red fruits and experienced the same phenomenon. The shepherds took these fruits home and boiled the juice to quench their thirst, and they also felt refreshed and invigorated at once. This can be called the history of coffee's earliest consumption by humans. By the time the first European coffeehouse opened in London in 1652, drinking coffee had become a part of people's lives, a fashion and a habit.

3. Western food

The word "Western" is determined by its specific geographical location. "West" is the meaning of the West, generally refers to the European countries. "Meal" is the food and drink dishes. Western food is generally knife and fork for cutlery, bread as the main food, more long table for the dining table. The main characteristics of western food is the main material is prominent, beautiful shape and color, taste delicious, nutritious, easy to supply and so on. Western food can be broadly divided into French, English, Italian, Russian, American, Mediterranean and other different styles of cuisine.

4. Chefs wear white hats

Chefs all over the world wear white hats so that they look clean and hygienic. But initially, it was only worn as a sign. In medieval Greece, where wars were frequent, townspeople often fled to monasteries for refuge. It is said that once a few famous chefs fled into the monastery, they changed into black clothes and hats, dressed like monks. A long day, they felt that they should distinguish themselves from the monks, so the monks wore black high hat changed to white. After that, the chefs wore white high hats became an agreed rule.

5. Suit

Broadly speaking, the suit refers to Western-style clothing, is relative to the "Chinese clothing" in terms of European clothing. Narrowly refers to Western-style tops or Western-style suits. The two suits are usually a first choice for men to dress in more formal occasions for corporate and government employees. Suit so everlasting, a very important reason is that it has a deep cultural connotation, the mainstream of the suit culture is often played on the "cultured, educated, gentlemanly, authoritative sense" and other labels. The main features of a suit are its straight appearance, smooth lines and comfort. If matched with a tie or bow tie, it looks more noble and elegant. In addition, in the increasingly open modern society, the suit as a dress style also entered the ranks of women's clothing, reflecting the independence and self-confidence of women and men alike.

6. The origin of the hand, chopsticks and knife and fork

The world's dining jr utensils are divided into hand, knife and fork and chopsticks three. For most of the time since the birth of mankind, food has been grasped with the hands, and forks and chopsticks appeared because of the need to access hot food. Forks were initially used for many years in Europe and the Near East, but only as utensils in the kitchen, and when they first entered high society, many kings such as Queen Elizabeth I of England were still accustomed to grasping food with their hands. Chopsticks, on the other hand, has a much longer history, and its birth was due to the characteristics of cooking small pieces of food decided.