Abstract:

The Spring Festival is the most important festival in China while Christmas is the most important festival in Western countries. With a long history, they developed the regional culture respectively. However，different nations have began to share the other festival with the human movement and cultural communication. This paper is intended to explore their origins, development and the different celebrating ways to see the similarities and differences between the Spring Festival and Christmas in terms of cultural connotation. The paper consists of four parts. The first part is an introduction to the paper. The second part is the major part of the paper, which makes a research of their origins, the connotation and studies the significance of eating certain food to express the best wishes for the coming year as part of necessary way to celebrate their festival. The third part talks about the influence of globalization and modernization on these two festivals. Nowadays, the Spring Festival and Christmas have begun to integrate in most of countries. The last part is the conclusion of the paper.

Keywords: The Spring Festival; Christmas; cultural connotation

摘要：

春节是中国最重要的节日而圣诞节是西方最重要的节日，由于中西方文化的不同，春节和圣诞节存在着诸多差异性。本文将通过对这两个节日的起源和各自的庆祝方式的对比来探讨中西方传统文化的异同。另外，随着人类不断的搬迁及各民族之间日益频繁的交流，春节和圣诞节逐渐开始交融，中西双方开始接受并欢迎对方的节日在自己的国度庆祝。本论文共有四个部分组成，第一部分简要介绍全文内容，第二部分从起源，庆祝方式和食物的寓意三个方面对春节和圣诞节进行对比分析。第三部分讨论春节和圣诞节的相同点，以及讨论在社会全球化和现代化进程中中西方传统节日的日趋交融。最后部分是论文的小结。

关键词：春节；圣诞节；文化内涵