节日的由来(英文)

万圣节（中，英文版）
中文：
关于万圣节有这样一个故事。是说有一个叫杰克的爱尔半兰人，因为他对钱特别的吝啬，就不允许他进入天堂，而被打入地狱。但是在那里他老是捉弄魔鬼撒旦，所以被踢出地狱，罚他提着灯笼永远在人世里行走。 在十月三十一日爱尔兰的孩子们用土豆和罗卜制作“杰克的灯笼”，他们把中间挖掉、表面上打洞并在里边点上蜡烛。为村里庆祝督伊德神的万圣节，孩子们提着这种灯笼挨家挨户乞计食物。?这种灯笼的爱尔兰名字是“拿灯笼的杰克”或者“杰克的灯笼”，缩写为Jack-o'-lantern ?在拼写为jack-o-lantern。 现在你在大多数书里读到的万圣节只是孩子们开心的夜晚。在小学校里，万圣节是每年十月份开始庆祝的。 孩子们会制作万圣节的装饰品：各种各样桔红色的南瓜灯。你可以用黑色的纸做一个可怕的造形??一个骑在扫帚把上戴著尖尖帽子的女巫飞过天空，或者是黑蝙蝠飞过月亮。这些都代表恶运。当然黑猫代表运气更差。有时候会出现黑猫骑在女巫扫帚后面飞向天空的造形。 在万圣节的晚上，我们都穿着爸爸妈妈的旧衣服和旧鞋子，戴上面具，打算外出。比我们小的孩子必须和他们的母亲一块出去，我们大一点的就一起哄到领居家，按他们的门铃并大声喊道：“恶作剧还是招待！”意思是给我们吃的，要不我们就捉弄你。里边的人们应该出?评价我们的化装。 “噢！这是鬼，那是女巫友友，这是个老太婆。” 有时候他们会跟我们一起玩，假装被鬼或者女巫吓着了。但是他们通常会带一些糖果或者苹果放进我们的“恶作剧还是招待”的口袋里。可是要是没人回答门铃或者是有人把我们赶开该怎么办呢？我们就捉弄他们，通常是拿一块肥皂把他们的玻璃涂得乱七八糟。然后我们简告慎回家，数数谁的糖果最多。 还有一个典型的万圣节花招是把一卷手纸拉开，不停地往树上扔，直到树全被白纸裹起?。除非下大雪或大雨把纸冲掉，纸会一拦敬直呆在树上。这并不造成真正的伤害，只是把树和院子搞乱，一种万圣节的恶作剧。
英文：
HALLOWEEN One story about Jack, an Irishman, who was not allowed into Heaven because he was stingy with his money. So he was sent to hell. But down there he played tricks on the Devil (Satan), so he was kicked out of Hell and made to walk the earth forever carrying a lantern. Well, Irish children made Jack's lanterns on October 31st from a large potato or turnip, hollowed out with the sides having holes and lit by little candles inside. And Irish children would carry them as they went from house to house begging for food for the village Halloween festival that honored the Druid god Muck Olla. The Irish name for these lanterns was "Jack with the lantern" or "Jack of the lantern," abbreviated as " Jack-o'-lantern" and now spelled "jack-o-lantern." The traditional Halloween you can read about in most books was just children's fun night. Halloween celebrations would start in October in every elementary school. Children would make Halloween decorations, all kinds of orange-paper jack-o-lanterns. And from black paper you'd cut "scary" designs ---an evil witch with a pointed hat riding through the sky on a broomstick, maybe with black bats flying across the moon, and that meant bad luck. And of course black cats for more bad luck. Sometimes a black cat would ride away into the sky on the back of the witch's broom. And on Halloween night we'd dress up in Mom or Dad's old shoes and clothes, put on a mask, and be ready to go outside. The little kids (children younger than we were) had to go with their mothers, but we older ones went together to neighbors' houses, ringing their doorbell and yelling, "Trick or treat!" meaning, "Give us a treat (something to eat) or we'll play a trick on you!" The people inside were supposed to come to the door and comment on our costumes. Oh! here's a ghost. Oh, there's a witch. Oh, here's an old lady. Sometimes they would play along with us and pretend to be scared by some ghost or witch. But they would always have some candy and maybe an apple to put in our "trick or treat bags." But what if no one come to the door, or if someone chased us away? Then we'd play a trick on them, usually taking a piece of soap and make marks on their windows. .And afterwards we would go home and count who got the most candy. One popular teen-agers' Halloween trick was to unroll a roll of toilet paper and throw it high into a tree again and again until the tree was all wrapped in the white paper. The paper would often stay in the tree for weeks until a heavy snow or rain washed it off. No real harm done, but it made a big mess of both the tree and the yard under it. One kind of Halloween mischief.

愚人节
All Fool's Day, also known as April Fool's Day, is celebrated annually on the first day of April. It is a time for the traditional playing of pranks upon unsuspecting people...the victim of such a prank being called an April Fool.
The origins of this custom are somewhat uncertain, but may have initially been related to the arrival of Spring in late March, at which time Mother Nature is said to "fool" the human race with sudden and fickle changes in the weather...showers one minute and sunshine the next. The playing of practical jokes, however, dates back to Ancient Rome and such activities were an integral part of the Hilaria celebrations held on March 25, a celebration which would again appear to be associated with the coming of Spring and the Vernal Equinox, held to honor the resurrection of Attis, Roman God of Vegetation who was linked to the seasonal cycle. In England, an ancient legend states that April Fool's Day commemorates the fruitless mission of the Rook (or European Crow) which was sent out in search of land from Noah's flood-encircled ark.
感恩节
Thanksgiving is a holiday celebrated in much of North America, generally observed as an expression of gratitude, usually to God. The most common view of its origin is that it was to give thanks to God for the bounty of the autumn harvest. In the United States, the holiday is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. In Canada, where the harvest generally ends earlier in the year, the holiday is celebrated on the second Monday in October, which is observed as Columbus Day or protested as Indigenous Peoples Day in the United States.

Thanksgiving is traditionally celebrated with a feast shared among friends and family. In the United States, it is an important family holiday, and people often travel across the country to be with family members for the holiday. The Thanksgiving holiday is generally a "four-day" weekend in the United States, in which Americans are given the relevant Thursday and Friday off. Thanksgiving is almost entirely celebrated at home, unlike the Fourth of July or Christmas, which are associated with a variety of shared public experiences (fireworks, caroling, etc.)
复活节
The Date of Easter

Prior to A.D. 325, Easter was variously celebrated on different days of the week, including Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. In that year, the Council of Nicaea was convened by emperor Constantine. It issued the Easter Rule which states that Easter shall be celebrated on the first Sunday that occurs after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox. However, a caveat must be introduced here. The "full moon" in the rule is the ecclesiastical full moon, which is defined as the fourteenth day of a tabular lunation, where day 1 corresponds to the ecclesiastical New Moon. It does not always occur on the same date as the astronomical full moon. The ecclesiastical "vernal equinox" is always on March 21. Therefore, Easter must be celebrated on a Sunday between the dates of March 22 and April 25.
万圣节 all saint's day
The vigil of this feast is popularly called "Hallowe'en" or "Halloween".]

Solemnity celebrated on the first of November. It is instituted to honour all the saints, known and unknown, and, according to Urban IV, to supply any deficiencies in the faithful's celebration of saints' feasts during the year.

In the early days the Christians were accustomed to solemnize the anniversary of a martyr's death for Christ at the place of martyrdom. In the fourth century, neighbouring dioceses began to interchange feasts, to transfer relics, to divide them, and to join in a common feast; as is shown by the invitation of St. Basil of Caesarea (397) to the bishops of the province of Pontus. Frequently groups of martyrs suffered on the same day, which naturally led to a joint commemoration. In the persecution of Diocletian the number of martyrs became so great that a separate day could not be assigned to each. But the Church, feeling that every martyr should be venerated, appointed a common day for all. The first trace of this we find in Antioch on the Sunday after Pentecost. We also find mention of a common day in a sermon of St. Ephrem the Syrian (373), and in the 74th homily of St. John Chrysostom (407). At first only martyrs and St. John the Baptist were honoured by a special day. Other saints were added gradually, and increased in number when a regular process of canonization was established; still, as early as 411 there is in the Chaldean Calendar a "Commemoratio Confessorum" for the Friday after Easter. In the West Boniface IV, 13 May, 609, or 610, consecrated the Pantheon in Rome to the Blessed Virgin and all the martyrs, ordering an anniversary. Gregory III (731-741) consecrated a chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter to all the saints and fixed the anniversary for 1 November. A basilica of the Apostles already existed in Rome, and its dedication was annually remembered on 1 May. Gregory IV (827-844) extended the celebration on 1 November to the entire Church. The vigil seems to have been held as early as the feast itself. The octave was added by Sixtus IV