过了那么多个中国年，你们可知道春节的地道表达?从今天开始“中级提升”将带你感受外国栏目中的春节气氛。春节从哪来?中国过大年吃什么?除夕我们怎么玩儿?小编为你一一介绍。

Hello and welcome to the special Chinese new year’s edition of discovering China. I’m Alina Wang and I’m Ben Hedges, and today we’ll be taking you through some of the most important traditions of Chinese new year and historical background. We will look at some of the legends behind Chinese new year and how to celebrate it. Here in the US and Chinese across the world.

The Chinese have specific way to celebrate their new year. If you walk down the street in Chinatown during Chinese New Year, you see a variety of ancient traditions such as red banners, firecrackers and lion dance performances, streets are filled with lively celebration.

However, legend has said that the new year has not always been a time of festivity. An Asian Chinese story told a chilly start to this festive holiday, it begins with an ancient Chinese beast called Nian.

Every New Year Nian would rise from swelling in the sea to ravage Chinese village in livestock and hurting people. The villages soon found out from a wise gray-haired old man that the only way to scare the beast away was to set off firecrackers and light lamps and to hang red banners on each door. As the story goes, this was the beginning of a tradition that would last thousands of years.

So this story leads to the creation of many of other traditions for celebrating Chinese New Year. let’s take a look at some of these traditions.

We’re gonna try now tells us why firecrackers are so important to kick off the new year celebrations. For many Chinese, New Year celebrations will not be the same without firecrackers. These tradition originates from ancient China as a Chinese was the first to invent gunpowder as early as during the ninth century.It was believed that ghost, bad spirits and even the legendary monster called Nian that came out attack people during a new year were afraid of loud noises, so the Ancient Chinese would fill bamboo stems with gunpowder to make smell explosions to drive away Nian, evil spirits and bad luck.Another popular traditional belief was that the noise from the firecrackers would awaken the sleeping dragon that fly across the sky, bringing plentiful rain for their crops.Today in most countries for safety issues, it is illegal for individuals to light firecrackers, but these tradition persist to make it safe and enjoyable for the public. Various Chinese organizations have organized firecrackers celebrations a spot at the annual cultural activities. Since 2000, the Chinese-American community in New York City has been organizing the annual Chinatown Lunar New Year firecrackers ceremony that attracts more than 200,000 visitors.

词汇速递：

tradition [trə’diʃən] n. 惯例，传统;传说

historical [his’tɔrikəl] adj. 历史的;史学的;基于史实的

celebrate [’selibreit] vt. 庆祝;举行;赞美;祝贺

specific [spi’sifik] adj. 特殊的，特定的

chinatown [ˈtʃaɪnəˌtaʊn] n. 唐人街，中国城

variety [və’raiəti] n. 多样;种类

ancient [’einʃənt] adj. 古代的;古老的

originate [əˈrɪdʒəˌnet] v. 起源于

invent [in’vent] vt. 发明;创造;虚构

plentiful [’plentiful] adj. 丰富的;许多的;丰饶的

organize [’ɔ:ɡənaiz] v. 组织

ceremony [’seriməuni] n. 典礼，仪式