中国文化博览:中华民俗之扫尘守岁

sweeping the dust

扫尘

每年从农历腊月二十三日起到除夕止，我国民间把这段时间叫做迎春日，也叫扫尘日。扫尘就是年终大扫除，北方称扫房，南方叫掸尘。在春节前扫尘，是我国人民素有的传统习惯。大江南北，到处洋溢着欢欢喜喜搞卫生、干干净净迎新春的气氛。

Dust is homophonic with chen（尘）in Chinese, which means old and past. In this way, sweeping the dust before the Spring Festival means a thorough cleaning of houses to sweep away bad luck in the past year. This custom shows a good wish of putting away old things to welcome a new life. In a word, just before the Spring Festival comes, every household will give a thorough cleaning to bid farewell to the old year and usher in the new.

Dust与尘是谐音（尘在汉语中的意思是旧的和过去的）。这样，在春节前扫尘是指彻底清洁房屋扫除过去一年的厄运。此习俗表达了收拾旧事物，欢迎新生活的美好愿望。总之，就在春节到来之前，为了告别旧年迎接新年，家家户户都会彻底打扫一下房屋。

Staying Up Late on New Years Eve

守岁

The tradition of staying up late to see New Year in originated from an interesting folk tale. In ancient China there lived a monster named Year, who was very ferocious. Year always went out from its burrow on New Years Eve to devour people. Therefore, on every New Years Eve, every household would have supper together. After dinner, no one dared go to sleep and all the family members would sit together, chatting and emboldening each other. Gradually the habit of staying up late on New Years Eve is formed. Thus in China, celebrating the Spring Festival is also called passing over the year (guo nian). However, now there are less and less people in cities who will stay up late to see New Year in.

守岁的传统源自于一个有趣的民间故事。在中国古代有一个叫作年的凶猛怪物，在除夕夜年会从地洞里出来吃人。因此在除夕夜，每家每户都会一起吃晚饭，晚饭以后没人敢睡觉，所有的家庭成员会坐在一起聊天互相壮胆。逐渐在除夕夜守岁的习惯形成了，因此在中国，庆祝春节也被叫作过年。然而在城市里很少有人以守岁来欢迎新年。