Christmas Season in Denmark

By Lei Feng-Feldthusen

對于很多西方國家的小朋友來說，圣誕節(jié)當天真是一年中最幸福的日子：可以吃豐盛的圣誕大餐，可以收到很多心愛的禮物，還可以和家人歡聚一堂。而在北歐的小朋友們則有整整一個月的圣誕季！12月的北歐冰天雪地，但空氣中洋溢的熱鬧的節(jié)日氣氛卻讓人歡喜萬分。

Bjorn Jensen is a seven-year-old Danish boy.He has blond, curly hair and greenish blue eyes.1. blond: 金色的；curly: 卷的；greenish blue: 帶點綠的藍色。Like all the other real descendants of the Vikings, Bjorn is thin, tall and rough, endowed with a great passion for all the outdoor activities, such as cycling, playing football and skiing.2. 跟其他真正的維京人后裔一樣，比約恩身材瘦高，體格結(jié)實，天生就對戶外活動有著極大熱情，比如騎車、踢足球和滑雪。descendant: 后代；the vikings: 維京人，泛指北歐海盜，他們從公元8世紀到11世紀一直侵擾歐洲沿海和英國島嶼，其足跡遍及從歐洲大陸至北極的廣闊疆域；rough: 結(jié)實的；be endowed with: 賦有；cycling: 騎車；skiing: 滑雪。When night falls though and it is no longer safe to stray around outside,Bjorn fancies playing with his favorite Lego toys.3. stray: 閑蕩；fancy: 喜歡；Lego toy: 樂高積木玩具。This night, however, all the toys he usually fancies seem dull: even his toy soldiers have lost their splendor.4. dull: 無趣；splendor: 光輝，異彩。But why?… Oh, because tomorrow is the first day of December! The day that the nisse will begin handing out gifts,5. Nisse: 尼森小人，是丹麥最著名的民間傳說形象之一，其來源大概可追溯到基督誕生以前，傳說每一個農(nóng)家都有一個尼森小人居住在閣樓或者馬棚里，如果善待他便會得到好的回報，反之則會遭到報復(fù)；hand out: 發(fā)放。a custom that repeats itself every day until Christmas Eve. December, therefore, apart from being known as Christmas season, can also be nicknamed6. nickname: 戲稱，起綽號。gift month. The most exiting month of the year and the one that little children like Bjorn have been looking forward to all year.

圣誕燭臺

A nisse is a gift bearer who is no taller than three feet, with a long white beard and wearing grey and red woolens with a red cap.7. gift bearer: 送禮物的人；feet: 英寸（約30厘米）；beard: 絡(luò)腮胡子；woolen: 羊毛衫。In Scandinavian mythology, a nisse secretly lives in farm houses, barns or gardens, acting as their guardians.8. Scandinavian: 斯堪的納維亞的（在地理上是指斯堪的納維亞半島，包括挪威和瑞典，文化與政治上則包含丹麥）；mythology:神話傳說；barn: 谷倉，畜棚；guardian: 守護者。The nisse will protect the farmers’ children and animals from evil and misfortune9. protect sb. from evil and misfortune:護佑某人，驅(qū)邪免災(zāi)。and even help the farmers with their work,but only if they are treated well. However, if they are treated poorly or feel insulted, they will play tricks on the farmer; like tying the cows’ tails together, turning things upside-down,breaking things or even killing livestock.10. 不過，如果他們覺得待遇不好，或者感覺受到了侮辱，他們就會捉弄農(nóng)夫，比如把奶牛的尾巴綁到一起、把東西上下顛倒、打破東西，甚至?xí)⒌羯?。insulted:受侮辱的；play tricks on sb.: 在某人身上玩花招，戲弄某人；turn sth. upside-down: 把東西上下顛倒；livestock: 牲畜，家畜。So on Christmas Eve,old grandmother will gather the children around and together they go to the barn to leave the nisse a bowl of rice porridge with butter and cinnamon sugar on top,11. rice porridge: 米粥；cinnamon sugar: 肉桂糖。in order to properly thank him for his kindness.

From the first of December, the nisse will leave a gift in the children’s red Christmas stocking hanging either at the bedside or on a door handle. Children like Bjorn will wake up every morning eagerly tiptoeing12. tiptoe: 躡手躡腳。to the door of his room to check what the nisse has left for him in the night.

尼森小人

With an exclamation13. exclamation: 驚嘆聲。, Bjorn put his hand down the red stocking and pulled out a small package. He sat back down on the bed and impatiently tore14. tear: 撕掉。the paper of his first kalendergave (Christmas gift). It is an Advent calendar15. Advent calendar: 降臨節(jié)日歷。chocolate. In Denmark and other Scandinavian countries,there is an Advent calendar which is used to count or celebrate the days in anticipation of16. in anticipation of: 期待著，預(yù)計到。Christmas. It counts from the four Sundays before Christmas, usually between November 27 and December 3 inclusive17. inclusive: （首末點都包括在內(nèi)的）從……到……都。. Every Danish family will make a special candle holder—a circular base made of an evergreen conifer such as fir, pine or spruce decorated with a variety of Christmas ornaments.18. 每個丹麥家庭都會做一個特制的燭臺——用常青松柏，如冷杉、松木或云杉做成環(huán)形的底座，上面裝飾著各類圣誕飾品。candle holder: 燭臺；circular base: 環(huán)形底座；evergreen conifer: 常青松柏； fir: 冷杉；pine: 松；spruce: 云杉；ornament: 裝飾品。Four candles standing in it, representing four Sundays. On every Sunday evening of Advent calendar, a candle will be lit until all four candles are lit and then Christmas Eve is just around the corner19. around the corner: 臨近。.

The Advent calendar is a large rectangular card with twenty four “windows”, one for each day of December counting up till Christmas Eve.20. rectangular: 長方形的；count up till: 算到……為止。When you open the windows,from the first one to the last, an image, a poem, a portion of a story or a small gift (such as a toy or a piece of chocolate) will be revealed.21. a portion of: 一部分；reveal: 展現(xiàn)，顯露。Nowadays, the Advent calendar chocolate seems very popular amongst children. The chocolate are in different themes, such as animals, sports, vehicles, cartoon figures and so on. Every time you open a window, you can find a piece of chocolate in different shapes.

On the second day of December, Bjorn received a model of a Viking ship. Ever since his parents took him to the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde he has yearned for just this model.22. Roskilde: 羅斯基勒，位于丹麥西蘭島東部的一座城市；yearn for: 渴望。The Viking ships remain a great pride of Danish national heritage23. national heritage: 民族遺產(chǎn)。. The Viking ships have a unique design: slender24. slender: 細長的。and flexible so that they can sail across oceans and small rivers alike. The ships brought the Vikings far from Scandinavia: to Iceland, Greenland, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, Africa,Central Asia and even North America predating Columbus by hundreds of years.25. 這些船帶著維京人遠航出了斯堪的納維亞，行至冰島、格陵蘭、地中海、黑海、非洲、中亞，甚至比哥倫布早好幾百年就到了北美。predate: 時間在……之前。The Viking long ship also had a special decorative feature; the ship prow was cut like a dragon’s head protruding from the bow (like the later figureheads).26. ship prow: 船首；protrude from: 從……伸出；bow: 船頭； figurehead: 船首飾像。Like a fierce creature the ship would tore open the dark, stormy ocean, performing as a mystical and invincible spirit.27. fierce: 兇猛的；stormy: 暴風驟雨的；invincible: 不可戰(zhàn)勝的；spirit: 幽靈。

降臨節(jié)日歷

So the days passed with another gift every day, and another window opened in the Advent calendar. Until at last Christmas Eve arrives.

The Jensen family takes turns to host the celebrating of Christmas. This year it is Sophie’s turn (Bjorn’s great grandmother28. great grandmother: 曾祖母。). She will prepare the grand Christmas dinner and party for the whole family counting 22 hungry(Viking) guests. Sophie is 79 this year, but like all the other old people in Denmark, she lives by herself in a big house and takes good care of her garden. She has four children, six grandchildren and one great-grandson. You can never tell her age from her appearance, charming and elegant, humorous and passionate. Every day she will drive her mini red Toyota to have gymnastic29. gymnastic: 體操。classes, sailing or dancing lessons. On a good day, she will pick up the most beautiful roses in her garden to make a delicate bouquet.30. delicate: 精致的；bouquet: 花束。Then she rides her little foldable bike to the nearby cemetery where her deceased husband rests,31. foldable: 可折疊的；cemetery: 墓地；deceased: 去世的。and stays there for an hour. She is from a small and relatively isolated32. isolated: 偏遠的。island called Bornholm in Denmark. When she was young she traveled a lot and lived in different places, such as Israel, Poland,33. Israel: 以色列；Poland: 波蘭。Germany, and then settled in Denmark again.

At about four o’clock, the well-dressed Bjorn and his parents show up at Sophie’s front door. “Oldemor (great grandmother), Glaedelig Jul (Merry Christmas) ,” Bjorn greets his favorite great-grandmother while his parents unload all the colorfully wrapped gifts from their car and put them under the Christmas tree in the middle of the living room.34. unload: 卸下；wrapped: 包裝好的。It is a real spruce tree decorated with colorful electrified little bulbs, sugar canes, silver or golden balls,nisse, candles, and all the other ornaments associated with Christmas.35. electrified: 通電的；sugar cane: 甘蔗。Under the tree are all the gifts piled and over flowing the carpet where the tree is standing.36. pile: 堆積；over flow: 擠滿。

At six o’clock, Christmas dinner is served. All the family members are seated around a long table, happy and expectant37. expectant: 期待的。. The traditional Danish Christmas dish is fl?skesteg (roast pork) and roast duck. Danes38. Dane: 丹麥人。are very fond of pork and Fl?skesteg is one of the national dishes. It is always served with caramelized potatoes and warm red, pickled cabbage.39. caramelized: 焦糖味的；pickled: 腌制的；cabbage:卷心菜。The roast duck is totally different from Beijing roast duck. It is roasted with plums40. plum: 李子。in the oven. With a sip of red wine, you can feel the perfect combination of the fragrance of the wine with the juice of the tender pork in your mouth.41. a sip of: （抿）一口；fragrance:香氣；tender: 嫩的。

The dinner will last hours and everybody is in an atmosphere of happiness and satisfaction. After dinner, it is the big ceremony of celebration. All the family members will dance hand in hand around the Christmas tree, singing the old Christmas songs—about five to ten songs.And then people will run around every room of the house, still hand in hand, singing loudly. Men, women and children, screaming, laughing and pushing each other, swaying42. sway: 搖擺，晃悠。, making the dancing more difficult and more exciting.

After the dancing, it is the time to open the Christmas gifts. A person will be appointed43. appoint: 指定。, usually, the youngest of the family. He or she will pick up a gift and call the gift-receiver’s name and present the gift. The first person to receive a gift will stand up and pick a new gift from under the tree and call the second gift-receiver’s name, and so on. Bjorn is the first one to pick up a gift and it is a gift to his uncle Daniel. Daniel gets up, goes to Bjorn, hugs him and receives the gift. It is a gift from his elder sister Marie. It is One Hundred Years of Solitude by his favorite writer Gabriel García Márquez.44. One Hundred Years of Solitude:《百年孤獨》，發(fā)表于1967年，拉美“魔幻現(xiàn)實主義”的代表作，作者為哥倫比亞作家加夫列爾·加西亞·馬爾克斯（Gabriel García Márquez）。Daniel lights up45. light up: 面露喜色。, he is very pleased.

Exchanging gifts can also take a couple of hours,depending on how many people are gathered to celebrate Christmas. Different from Americans, Danes open their gifts on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Morning.

It is late in the night. Bjorn is lying on his bed,surrounded by all his gifts. He smiles from the corners of his mouth, and falls asleep contented.46. smile from the corners of one’s mouth: 笑得嘴角上揚；contented: 心滿意足的。The swaying candles project47. project: 投射。long shadows on the wall. The warm orange lights create a hyggelig (cozy48. cozy: 溫暖舒適的。) atmosphere.Everybody is in sweet dreams. Merry Christmas.

加夫列爾·加西亞·馬爾克斯