作者：侯毅凌主编
出版社：外语教学与研究出版社
格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT
《英语学习》2014年7-12期合订本(精选)试读：
2014年第7期
东看西看
I How Children Celebrate Their Birthdays in England英国孩子怎样过生日By Luoying Chen∷胡玫 注作者照片
中国人给孩子过生日，传统上是给他做碗鸡蛋面，希望孩子能像长长的面条一样长寿。后来受到西方文化的影响，家长们也开始为过生日的孩子买生日蛋糕，在烛光下为他们唱生日快乐歌，而且还很可能会全家大餐一顿。可是这种生日仍然不如英国孩子的生日过得那么丰富多彩，回味无穷。下面让我们听听在英国剑桥出生并长大的陈珞瑛（Luoying Chen）讲——
In Western cultures, all children celebrate their birthdays, significant or un-significant, with a birthday party, which can be held at the child's own home or in a public place, such as a cinema or a park. A cake, covered with the same number of candles as the child's age, is brought to the birthday girl/boy and all the guests will sing the Happy Birthday song. After making a special birthday wish for the forthcoming year, the child will blow the candles out and if all the candles are blown out at once, the wish is supposed to become true. This tradition is practised in many different cultures, and is believed to be originated from ancient Greek, where candles were burnt as offerings to the gods and candles placed on round cakes were tributes to the Greek Moon Goddess,Artemis, as the round cake symbolised the moon.
In England, birthday parties are often celebrated with colourful decorations, such as banners and balloons. The type of food provided is almost always unhealthy, and usually consists of an abundance of sweets and sugary snacks in addition to the birthday cake.Young children usually have a theme to their parties, usually based around playing and entertainment. Parents often hire entertainment, such as magicians, for their children to entertain their guests in their own home. This entertainment often corresponds with the theme of the party, which can range from a dinosaur theme to a general fancy dress theme.
My first party, in my recollection, was in my first school year when I was 6, and my mother had booked a party in a children's indoor activity and entertainment centre called "Planet Zoom" —a large building designed for parties and play for children, in which you can play on slides and bouncy castles and in mazes and plastic ball pits.After playing, there are rooms where the party can go and eat food prepared by the chefs at Planet Zoom. I had invited 11 classmates to my party, and it was one of the fondestmemories from my childhood. Surprisingly, however, the most memorable part of the day was not at the party itself, but at home where my mother and I unwrapped the large bunch of presents I had received.This part of the birthday party hosting experience is by far one of the best and, I suspect, is an important reason for children having birthday parties. Presents play a key role for children in birthday parties, as without them, they might start to feel as if their parents cared less than those of the children receiving presents, and therefore they might feel upset and resentful. As years go on, gifts become more expensive and extravagant, and children these days no longer appreciate the mere gesture of gift giving but rather they expect meaningful or valuable presents and are finickyon what they want to receive.
To attend birthday parties, it is customaryfor the guests to bring birthday presents. This usually poses a problemfor most people, as not only do they have to consider what the birthday person wants or needs, but what the other people have bought and how much money they are willing to spend without seeming too cheap. Popular presents include gift cardsfor well known stores, jewellery, DVDs, CDs etc. Generally, clothing such as socks or underwear are not well received, and the limited choice for suitable presents leads to people getting very similar things each year. The guests themselves often also receive gifts from the host as a tokenof gratitude for their presence at the party. This is either seen in a "Thank You" card or a party bag—usually a plastic bag full of sweets, novelty plastic toys, stationery or stickers.When I was a little child, I always gave out party bags to my guests as I felt bad for only taking gifts without returning the favour. As an extra touch, I would always put in a couple of tattoo stickers from China, as I knew no one else had them and they were always popular with my friends.I hope their parents didn't think I was encouraging them into a life of crime and real tattoos.
As they get older, children host more creative and expensive parties. Some parties are specifically planned so that the guests can make little trinketsto take home with them. An example of this sort of party is a pottery party, held in a pottery shop or art studio.In my life of 15 years I have been invited to two pottery parties and I remember both occasions very fondly. The first was when I was eight and my best friend had invited myself and nine other girls to a small pottery shop near the city centre. The shop owner had set up a large table at the back where we were to paint the plain white pieces of pottery that we had picked. I had chosen a bear, and after my bear was painted it was collected along with the other painted pieces of pottery to be glazed. As glazing took quite some time, they were delivered to my best friend's home a week later for her to hand out. An alternative to this is to actually make the pottery itself in a pottery studio. Upon arrival, we were taught how to use a potter's wheeland ultimately make bowls and vases ourselves. This technique is the art of using a wheel which spins rapidly while the solid ball of soft clay is pressed, squeezed and pulled gently upwards and outwards into the shape of a bowl.While people went up one by one to make their bowl, the others sculpted the clay by hand and made their own unique candle holders. Once everything was made, they were taken away to be fired in the large kiln and we received them three weeks later.
For older children, another popular party choice is a cinema trip, often accompanied with a meal at a nearby fast food restaurant or chain restaurant. These restaurants often anticipate these and offer party dealswhere large tables can be booked and the waiters and waitresses will bring out a birthday cake and sing to the birthday child. The film is usually a comedy aimed for children or youths, as both boys and girls appreciate comedies more readily than they do with romantic films.Horror movies do not bode wellwith young children, or their parents. I was lucky enough to have had two such parties when I was younger: one when I was seven, the other when I was nine, both at the cinema in Cambridge city centre. I am grateful towards my parents for allowing me to invite so many children for both a film viewingand a meal. Nowadays, these sorts of parties are becoming increasingly common with younger and younger children. As they get older, such frivolous parties are less desirable and more cool parties such as sleepovers and house parties are hosted.
For teenager birthday parties, sleepovers are common occurrences amongst girls as they allow time to bond and become closer with their friends in a comforting and comfy environment.They are less common amongst younger children, who can become upset when separated from their parents for the night. Although sleepovers happen frequently throughout the year, the birthday sleepovers are made special by the increased number of guests, the higher quality of snacks and entertainment and the boosted excitement levels amongst the girls. Unlike with girls, boys' sleepovers become less common as they become more mature, because sleepovers may be seen as
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