Christmas Activities for Adults

【小题1】 So what should we do when we have all the time for ourselves without having to worry about work? You have to have fun! For starters, here are some fun Christmas activities that you are absolutely going to love.

·Organise a Charity Show

Christmas is about spreading joy and love, and it’s also about giving. We give our family presents on this day to show them happiness and love, don’t we? But have you ever wondered how the poor celebrate their Christmas? Does Santa leave gifts for them too? 【小题2】 Use all the activities to buy gifts and／or necessities for those less privileged(幸运的).

·Visit Orphanages(孤儿院)and Old Age Homes

Christmas is an occasion for the entire family to come together and celebrate. More than the celebration, we look forward to being near our close ones. 【小题3】 Form a group and spend an entire day with children at orphanages or seniors at old age homes. Play games, interact and give away goodies, especially to the children.

·Start a Donation Drive

If you have the time, organise a donation drive in your locality. A lot of people will want to donate clothes , accessories (衣服的配饰)and other necessary items. 【小题4】

【小题5】 Plan these activities in time and have fun with your family and friends. Merry Christmas and may God bless you!

Traditional festivals have made a comeback. Spring Festival celebrations have just ended, Qingming (Tomb Sweeping) Festival is on the way (April 5), followed by Duanwu (Dragon Boat) Festival (June 14) Later, there will be the Mid-Autumn (Moon) Festival (Sept.22) and Chongyang Festival (Senior's Festival) (Oct, 16).China currently has about 10,000 traditional festivals among is 56 ethnic groups.

Nobody really questioned whether we needed more holidays until 2004 when a pubic debate took place about the popularity of some Western festivals and the waning influence of traditional festivals. The key message was: Traditional festivals are "important and therefore they need protection".

But many people, especially the young, say they are not interested in these festivals. Instead, they are embracing Western Festivals and holidays such 25 Christmas Day, Valentine's Day Halloween, Thanksgiving Day, and even April Fool's Day.

A commonly heard reason for this thinking is: "Traditional festivals are boring, old stuff" while Western festivals are "much more interesting and exciting". Meanwhile, concerned scholars want to preserve traditional festivals that "are vital elements of our unique historical legacy, and cultural identity".

If we really want to save our traditions, we should worry about the lack of content. Take Spring Festival for example, in the past, people did a lot of interesting activities, as shown in popular costume dramas such as Dream of the Red Mansion. But today, most people just eat, let off fireworks, play mahjong or watch gala shows.

To revitalize traditional festivals, we should not blame young people for blindly following Western festivals and Western culture but should change the way we celebrate traditional festivals. For instance, for Qingmng Festival, young netizens are establishing online cemeteries to mourn their deceased family members or deceased pets.

With new forms and novel ideas, I believe traditional festivals can stay forever young and always be appealing, here and abroad.

Countries around the world celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8. The United Nations says the theme of this year is DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender (性别) Equality.

The UN says that from the earliest days of computing, women have contributed to information technology. But it says those contributions have been little recognized or valued. The international organization says 37 percentage of women do not use the internet. It also says 259 million fewer women than men have access to the internet. Yet, women make up very close to half the world’s population. The UN says women are largely underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematic careers. “Bringing women into technology results in more creative solutions and has greater potential for innovations that meet women’s needs and promote gender equality,” says the UN’s website.

For this year’s International Women’s Day, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement, “Let us work together to build a more inclusive, just, and prosperous world for women, girls, men, and boys everywhere.” The IWD has its roots in the social and labor movement in the United States. It began in New York City on March 8, 1857, when female workers marched in protest (抗议) of unfair working conditions and unequal rights in clothing factories. The workers called for a shorter workday and better pay, the National Archives says. On March of 1908, women workers again marched through New York City to protest child labor and poor working conditions, and demand women’s right to vote.

The first recorded celebration internationally was on March 19,1911, in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. At that time, over a million people came out to support women’s rights. After World War II, several countries started to celebrate women’s day on March 8. Two years later, the UN officially announced that date as International Women’s Day in 1977. Some countries, including China, Russia and Uganda, also recognize it as a public holiday. Past UN celebrations have included the issues of climate change, rural women and HIV/AIDS.