Read on Twitter
Not 100% sure but I think probably gifting an apple to others can now qualify as an unique Chinese Christmas tradition.
This is both interesting and heart-warming to me, and contributes to my thinking that boycott Christmas is futile and unnecessary.
A brief thread
This is both interesting and heart-warming to me, and contributes to my thinking that boycott Christmas is futile and unnecessary.
A brief thread
Christmas Eve is translated as 平安夜 night of peace/safety in Chinese and pronounced as Ping An Ye.
Apple in Chinese is 苹果, pronounced as Ping Guo.
I don't know exactly when but in recent years increasingly more Chinese people somehow link them, hence apple with Christmas.
Apple in Chinese is 苹果, pronounced as Ping Guo.
I don't know exactly when but in recent years increasingly more Chinese people somehow link them, hence apple with Christmas.
The only credible explanation to me is their pronunciations - both start with Ping - lead people to think the Christmas Eve and Apple are connected, so giving an apple, usually decorated, on Christmas, is appropriate and friendly, representing good wishes for peace/safety.
I suppose that would sound quite amusing if not incredulous to people outside China, who have celebrated Christmas for centuries without this practice.
I too find it amusing and incredible to learn today that a Japanese Christmas tradition is...eating KFC.
But folks, that's
I too find it amusing and incredible to learn today that a Japanese Christmas tradition is...eating KFC.
But folks, that's
how culture works, or how cultures work - they co-exist and influence one another, sometimes producing bizarre results.
At the end of the day, people born and growing up in different cultures usually want something in common: peace/safety, a good time with family/friends, etc.
At the end of the day, people born and growing up in different cultures usually want something in common: peace/safety, a good time with family/friends, etc.
There are quite some Christians in China, but as a whole Chinese are overwhelmingly atheists. Christmas for them is just an occasion to get together, have fun, enjoy a good time - and even developing their own Christmas tradition. The reason here may be totally a coincidence, and
the reason in Japan might be KFC ran a good marketing campaign some decades ago.
Purposefully or coincidentally, that's just how traditions, cultures, peoples interact with one another and evolve.
We live, we spend some time for some reason, and we die. In the middle of it,
Purposefully or coincidentally, that's just how traditions, cultures, peoples interact with one another and evolve.
We live, we spend some time for some reason, and we die. In the middle of it,
inventing a domestic tradition on a foreign festival seems quite funny and does no harm.
The Chinese people have long prided the Chinese culture on 兼容并蓄 tolerance and assimilative, and I'm glad to see this (difficult) year saw considerable less crying-wolf on Christmas or
The Chinese people have long prided the Chinese culture on 兼容并蓄 tolerance and assimilative, and I'm glad to see this (difficult) year saw considerable less crying-wolf on Christmas or
some annoying lectures on the necessity to boycott Christmas so that we will not be "invaded" by that.
The Chinese people and the culture are bigger than that.
(end)
The Chinese people and the culture are bigger than that.
(end)
