Mind Your Manners

Around the world, people have different ideas about what good table manners are. In India, for example, people only eat with their right hands. You take food from one dish on the table, usually a kind of bread or rice, mix it with food from another dish and then put it in your mouth. Your left hand stays still. Eating with your left hand is very rude!

In western countries, people do not usually share the same dishes,. Everyone has his or her own plate of food, You eat with a knife and fork and you should not wave them around when you are not eating. In addition, you should try not to be noisy when eating.【小题1】

When you go to some restaurants in different parts of the world, it is important to know what people think is rude. For example, in China it is OK to be noisy in a restaurant. In fact, if a restaurant is not noisy, you may think it is not very good.【小题2】If a table is too noisy, other customers might not be happy.

【小题3】In China, one person usually pays for every one. In western countries, when friends eat together, they usually share the cost. This is called "going Dutch". In addition, when westerners pay the check, they usually leave some money for the waiter. This is called“leaving a tip." Not leaving a tip is very rude. In US, it's common to leave tips of 10%, 15% or 20% of the check. The amount depends on how good the waiter was. 【小题4】

The way people eat food is different around the world, but you can find the same kinds of food in many countries.【小题5】

The 9th day of the 9th lunar month is the traditional Chongyang Festival, or Double Ninth Festival. It usually falls in October in the Gregorian calendar (阳历). In an ancient and mysterious book Yi Jing, or The Book of Changes, number “6” was thought to be of Yin character meaning feminine or negative, while number, “9”was thought to be Yang, meaning masculine or positive. So the number nine in both month and day create the Double Ninth Festival, or Chongyang Festival. Chong in Chinese means “double”. Also, as double ninth is pronounced the same as the word to mean “forever”, both are “Jiu Jiu”, the Chinese ancestors considered it a lucky day worth celebration. That's why ancient Chinese began to celebrate this festival long time ago.

The custom of climbing to a height to avoid popular disease was passed down from long time ago. Therefore, the Double Ninth Festival is also called “Height Ascending Festival”. The height people will reach is usually a mountain or a tower. Ancient literary figures have left many poems describing the activity. Even today, people still crowd to famous or little known mountains on this day.

On this day, people will eat Double Ninth Gao (or Cake). In Chinese, gao (cake) has the same pronunciation with gao (height). People do so just to hope progress in everything they are engaged in. There is no fixed ways for the Double Ninth Cake, but super cakes will have as many as nine layers, looking like a tower.

The Double Ninth Festival is also a time when chrysanthemum (菊花) blooms. China is proud of different species of chrysanthemum and people have loved them since ancient times. So enjoying the flourishing chrysanthemum also becomes a key activity on this festival. Also, people will drink chrysanthemum wine. Women used to stick such a flower into their hair or hang its branches on windows or doors to avoid evilness.

In 1989, the Chinese government decided the Double Ninth Festival as Seniors Day. Since then, all government units, organizations and streets communities will organize an autumn trip each year for those who have retired from their posts. At the waterside or on the mountains, the seniors will find themselves merged into nature. Younger generations will bring elder ones to the country or send gifts to them on this day.

In Africa, Christmas Day begins with groups of carolers (欢唱颂歌的人) walking to and from through the village, along the roadway, by the houses of the missionaries (传教士), singing the lovely carols known to the world around. Often people may be awakened by a group of carolers beginning to gather at the house of worship (敬神活动). They return home to make final preparations as to the clothes one must wear and also as to their offering for the Christmas service.

The most important part of their Christmas worship service is the love offering. This is the gift in honor of Jesus. At about 8 or 9 o'clock everyone goes to the celebration of the birthday of Jesus. Everyone who attends the service goes forward to lay down their gift upon the raised platform near the Communion table. No one will attend the service without giving a gift.

Christmas in South Africa is a summer holiday. There is no snow, but it has many flowers, many beautiful varieties of wild flowers being in their full pride.

In Ghana, most churches show the coming of Christmas by decorating the church and homes beginning with the first week in Advent, four weeks before Christmas. This season happens to be the time of cocoa harvest, so it is a time of wealth. Everyone returns home from wherever they might be such as farms or mines.

In Africa, it is the traditional dinner of turkey, roast beef, mince pies, or suckling pig, yellow rice with raisins, vegetables, and plum pudding, crackers. In the afternoon, families go out into the country and usually there are games or bathing in the warm sunshine, and then home in the cool of the evening. Boxing Day is also a proclaimed (正式宣布的) public holiday usually spent in the open air. It falls on December 26 and is a day of real relaxation.