Unit14　Holidaysandfestivals
　　Dialogues/monologues:
　　1、Chang-O was banished to the moon where , according to the legend, Chang-O can be seen at her most beautiful on the night of the bright harvest moon.
　　翻譯： 嫦娥被驅(qū)逐到月宮 , 根據(jù)傳說 , 每當(dāng)中秋之夜明月當(dāng)空的時(shí)候 , 可以看到她最美的容顏。 ——where 在這里的用法稱為關(guān)系副詞，引導(dǎo)非限制性定語從句，對(duì)前面的　先行詞 the moon 起補(bǔ)充說明的作用． where ＝ on which ．在月亮上
　　2、Especially exciting are the dragon and lion dances done during the festival.
　　3、And to cap it all the food in the restaurant is awful. It was so bad we had to eat out all the time despite having paid for meals in the price of our holiday.
　　4、Ancient people offered the year's first ripe grains to the gods in thanks for the crops that would sustain their communities for the coming year.
　　5、The ancient harvest festival of Europe helped give rise to contemporary Thanksgiving Day celebrations
　　Passage:
　　Holiday refers to the day set apart for religious observance or for the commemoration of some extraordinary event total stoppage of work and normal business activities, including feasting, parades and carnivals, or displays of flags and speechmaking.
　　Originally, in ancient times, holidays were predominantly religious in character and linked to natural events such as the annual course of the sun or the phases of the moon. The word “holiday”, in fact, is derived from “holyday”. Subsequently, secular holidays commemorating historical occasions or distinguished persons outnumbered holy days, although many ancient religious rituals and customs have been carried over into modern times and incorporated into both secular and religious observations. Today, the outstanding holiday is one of religious observance and abstention from normal work routines, taking place on Sunday for Christians, Friday for Muslims, and Saturday for Jews. In the U.S. , Sunday is not only a religious holiday but is also the only common-law holiday.
　　National holidays are set aside by official government proclamation to celebrate such occasions as the achievement of independence, the founding of the nation, the adoption of a constitution, the birthday of the ruler, or the national patron saint's day.
　　The U.S. has no national holidays as such legal holidays — on which banks, schools, or other public institutions and most places of business are closed — are designated by legislative enactment or by executive proclamation. Congress and the president designate the legal holidays for the District of Columbia and the federal territories but are without power to declare national holidays. Independence Day and other holidays are observed on a national scale as a result of action by the calendar date and requests national observance, and the states then usually enact the necessary legislation. Federal statutes often specify certain days as holidays for purposes related to the legislation.
　　In order to give federal employees three-day weekends, a 1968 federal law made several changes in dates of holiday observances, effective in 1971: Washington's Birthday now falls on the third Monday in February; Memorial Day, on the last Monday in May; Columbus Day, on the second Monday in October. Individual states later adopted these Monday holidays.
　　A number of states commemorate important events in their history. In Vermont, for example, the Battle of Bennington, fought in the American Revolution, is commemorated annually on August 16; in Louisiana the Battle of New Orleans of the War of 1812 is commemorated on January 8; Patriot's Day, commemorating the first battle of the American Revolution, is celebrated on or about April 19 in Massachusetts and Maine; and several southern states celebrate a confederate Memorial Day on different days in the spring.

Translate Reference：
　　假日是由于宗教儀式，或?yàn)榧o(jì)念某些特殊事件或著名人物而特地指定的日子。假日的主要特點(diǎn)是部分或完全停止工作和常規(guī)商務(wù)活動(dòng)。一般來說，假日往往伴有公眾或私人慶祝會(huì)，包括參加宴會(huì)、游行、狂歡會(huì)，或者參觀旗幟展覽和做演講等。
　　在古代，最初的假日主要以宗教為特色，與自然現(xiàn)象如每年的太陽運(yùn)行過程或月相等相關(guān)。實(shí)際上，“假日”一詞是由“圣日”這個(gè)詞演變而來的。而在之后的歲月里，世俗假日如紀(jì)念歷史事件或著名人物的次數(shù)遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超過了圣日，盡管許多古老的宗教儀式和習(xí)俗一直流傳到現(xiàn)在，并且融于世俗和宗教儀式這兩者之中。今天，具有突出特點(diǎn)的假日是宗教慶典和遠(yuǎn)離日常工作的日子：對(duì)于基督徒來說是星期日，穆斯林是星期五，猶太人則是星期六。在美國(guó)，星期日不僅是宗教節(jié)日而且還是惟一的習(xí)慣法定假日。
　　法定假日是由官方政府宣布的假日，用于慶祝特殊歷史事件，如獲得獨(dú)立，國(guó)家建立，憲法實(shí)施，統(tǒng)治者誕辰，或圣徒紀(jì)念日。
　　美國(guó)沒有全國(guó)性的法定假日。法定假日，即銀行、學(xué)�；蚱渌�公共機(jī)構(gòu)和大多數(shù)商業(yè)場(chǎng)所都關(guān)門歇業(yè)的日子，是由立法機(jī)關(guān)制定或執(zhí)行宣布的。國(guó)會(huì)和總統(tǒng)有權(quán)指定哥倫比亞特區(qū)和聯(lián)邦領(lǐng)土內(nèi)的法定假日，但卻沒有宣布全國(guó)性法定假日的權(quán)力。由于州政府的參與，獨(dú)立日和其他節(jié)日得以在全國(guó)范圍內(nèi)進(jìn)行。就拿感恩節(jié)來說吧，總統(tǒng)指定日歷上的日期，建議全國(guó)舉國(guó)歡慶。然后，州政府通常就開始立法并以頒布。聯(lián)邦政府法令往往明確規(guī)定假日的具體日期以便與立法相對(duì)應(yīng)。
　　為了給聯(lián)邦政府雇員提供為期三天的周末， 1968 年的一項(xiàng)聯(lián)邦法案對(duì)假日做了幾項(xiàng)修改，并于 1971 年生效。這項(xiàng)法案規(guī)定：華盛頓的誕辰日為 2 月的第 3 個(gè)星期一；陣亡將士紀(jì)念日是 5 月的最后一個(gè)星期一；哥倫布發(fā)現(xiàn)美洲紀(jì)念日為 10 月的第 2 個(gè)星期一；退伍軍人節(jié)是 10 月的第 4 個(gè)星期一。各個(gè)獨(dú)立州后來都采納了這些星期一假日。
　　許多州都紀(jì)念本州發(fā)生的重要?dú)v史事件。假如，在佛蒙特每年都會(huì)在 8 月 16 日紀(jì)念為美國(guó)獨(dú)立戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)而戰(zhàn)的本寧頓戰(zhàn)役。路易斯安那州在 1 月 8 日紀(jì)念 1821 年戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)中的新奧爾良戰(zhàn)役。為紀(jì)念美國(guó)獨(dú)立戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)的首次戰(zhàn)役的愛國(guó)者日，于每年的 4 月 19 日左右在馬薩諸塞州和緬因州舉行慶�；顒�(dòng)。每年春天的不同時(shí)候，南方各州會(huì)有聯(lián)邦陣亡將士紀(jì)念日。