Today, western festivals become more and more popular in China. A survey carried out in some big cities of China shows that a grate number of young people enjoy western holidays. It said, 68.5% of correspondents celebrate Christmas Day, and 61.8% celebrate Valentines’ Day. We can seldom find somebody who does not know these foreign festivals. Some critics are arguing that people are loosing their traditional values and the respect of historical heritage. In my opinion, we should not indulge ourselves too much in them and neglect the bad effect they have brought. There are three main factors which lead to this phenomenon. Firstly it bases on the economy. As China’s open-door policies, it brings not only the rapidly developing of economic, but also the melting of western culture. Since the income is increasing, people’s lives has improved. The basic problem like food, cloth and living condition have been solved, people began to pursue more about the sprit, so they can easily receive the new information from other countries. On the other hand, many foreign countries are attracted to invest in China because of the opening police. Food, drink, cloths, all these things are imported in China. So are the cultures and festivals. Secondly, business people take these festivals as opportunities to gain profits. When people have money to meet the needs of the lives, they would like to spend some on enjoying themselves, at the same time the business man would like to enjoy the profits gained from festivals. However, they do not care if the festivals are traditional or imported. The festivals are often turned into commercial gimmicks to boost profits. Usually, weeks before the festivals, market sellers have already exerted great efforts to create the holiday atmosphere and advertise their products. Spring festival is just one of them. Besides, Christmas and Valentine’s Day are the worth promoting days. As long as we go shopping, we are easily attracted by the goods and advertise in all kinds of stores, from the beginning to the end. Many business men choose these days to provide discounts and additional presents. for these, people are continually reminded and tempted to prepare a gift for someone, for the family and friends before Christmas, for the one they love before Valentine’s Day, or for the parents before Father’ and Mothers’ Day. Many people are misled by the commercial ways and often follow the trends unconsciously. And these trends almost take place of the traditional festivals, especially in some big and developed cities in China. For example, in Xiamen, Christmas is far more important in the business men’s eyes. All kinds of promoting activities are designedly arranged on Christmas Eve, people come to the store do the crazy shopping, having a meal, and playing. In order to seize more customs, some even give very low discounts during the mid-night. The attractive prices encourage people to buy goods and sent to others, and then these festivals become popular. However, things always have two sides. The presents may cause people’s vanity. Women all expect gifts from the boyfriends of husbands, and show them in front of other friends. In order to earn face, the presents must be expensive ones, and always cost people an arm and a leg to buy. It is inappropriate for the youth, especially the students in the campus. Thirdly, western festivals have the cultural and historical origins in the western countries, which are not known and comprehended by most of Chinese. There are so many western festivals, including Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and Saint Valentine's Day and so on, which are originated from or related with Christian or Catholicism which are not believed in by the majority of Chinese people. At the very beginning, the enthusiasm for Christmas and other foreign festivals are limited among high school and college students in big cities. These young people studied English in class, had their own English names and possessed certain knowledge and understanding of the western culture. Then the campus culture spread to the so-called “middle class”. Celebrating foreign festivals seems to be a fashion and a mark of the wealthier class, and today people are all crazy about it, but they throw the meaning and the culture away, just take the chance to relax themselves. Because of not understanding the meaning of April Fool’s Day, some tricks people played may lead to regretful consequences. When pursing the western festivals, a number of Chinese people have gradually forgotten and lost part of the culture identity. We can not deny that the western festivals have already lead to cultural aggression and threaten the preservation of our traditional festivals. We have our traditional Qixi Festivals for expressing the love, and Double Ninths, for respecting the olds, which less people know about, especially the youth who crazy about the Valentine’s Day, Father’s Day and Father’s Day. Chinese festivals have its own origin which formed through a long history. On Double Ninths, people will climb mountains and enjoy the chrysanthemum; and on Qixi Festivals, women can pray to get a happy marriage. And all these traditions are more valuable and worth to be cherished. By comparison, foreign festivals highlight the entertainment and sending gifts while Chinese festivals focus on getting together and enjoy the family ship, and teach people to respect others and so on. These are all good characters of our Chinese. Above all, western holidays brought us some entertainment, at the same time it caused some bad effects. So, when we are learning the western knowledge, receiving the foreign information, we should know more about our traditional festivals, respect them and cherish them.
注：还可以去百度文库里搜索“We all to celebrate western festival",那里有另外一篇讲这个题目的文章.