圣诞快乐
Christmas season is the most important time of the year for most of the countries of the western world. For Mexico it is for sure and for the USA it is a holiday as important as Thanksgiving, probably more important. I am writing you now this article from the comfort of my home is the USA in the state of Texas. The two most important days of the year are the 24th at night and the 25th.
圣诞季对于大部分西方世界国家来说是一年里面最重要的时间。墨西哥肯定是这样,而在美国它是和感恩节一样甚至更重要的节日。我正在美国德克萨斯州舒适的家中写这一篇文章。一年里面最重要的两天就是24日晚上和25日了。
Usually families get together to have dinner on the 24th and start as early as 6 to 7 pm and stay up late up to 2 to 3 am on the 25th. After having dinner people exchange gifts and just keep partying, playing, talking, and so on. Usually families also meet on the 25th for lunch and afternoon chat until late at night and maybe even have dinner again.
通常24日下午6到7点开始家庭聚餐,持续到25日早上2至3点结束。晚餐之后,人们互相交换礼物,接着派对、玩乐、聊天等等。通常家人们也会在25日再次见面一起进行午餐,然后下午继续聊天直到晚上,也许甚至再次共度晚餐。
That is exactly what I did the last couple of days in Mexico. I spent the 24th with my wife’s family side and all her brothers and sisters, parents, cousins and nephews. I believe we were like 35 total people. The 25th we spent it with my family side; my parents, brothers and sisters, their sons and daughters. The group here was a little smaller. We were like 24 people total. We open gifts on both homes. The gifts do not have to be expensive. Usually range from 50 RMB up to 500 RMB in some cases but there are always exceptions to the rules. I have seen people give their wives or husbands expensive watches, purses or jewelry or even brand new cars.
这就是我过去几天里在墨西哥所做的事情。24日那一天我和太太的家人待在一起,和她所有的兄弟姐妹、父母、堂兄妹和侄子外甥一起。我估计应该有35人。25日我们和我父母这边的家人待在一起,我父母,兄弟姐妹,他们的儿女。人数稍微少点,应该是24人。我们在双方家中都拆了礼物。礼物并不需要昂贵,通常从50人民币到500人民币不等,但是总有例外,我曾经见过有人送给他们的太太或者丈夫贵重的手表、包包或者珠宝,甚至新车。
This Christmas there were no big surprises on either side of the family as none of those expensive gifts were given!
这次圣诞对我们双方家人来讲都没有大的惊喜,谁都没有收到那些贵重的礼物!
The Christmas season is supposed to be more of a religious festivity more than anything else but through the years it has been commercialized so much that most people from other parts of the world associate this season with Santa Claus and shopping more than anything else.
圣诞季更应该是一个宗教节日,而不是其它什么日子,但是这些年来,它已经被如此商业化,以至于来自世界其它地方的人们把这个节日和圣诞老人以及购物关联起来,而忽略了其它。
In Mexico people during this season start getting together and making friends and family parties starting from the first few days of the month of December and usually these parties and get together could last up to the first few days of 2019 or just before most people get back to work after the holidays.
在墨西哥,人们在这个节日里相聚在一起,从十二月初开始就和朋友和家人举办派对,通常这些派对和聚会一直持续到新年的前几天,或者直到大部分人上班之前。
My sister as an example told me that she went to at least 10 different parties just before we met on the 25th. Me only basically the one on the 24th and the one on the 25th and a short company friend’s reunion on the 21st of December. We got together for lunch and spent at least 2-3 hours eating and chatting about some of the funny stories we all lived while doing business in China. We have this group of about 12 people from different departments of the company that go often to China and has been doing it for years. In all this time there are hundreds of different stories and situations that we all lived and went through that we always like to talk about because many of them are very funny. Anyway this is some of the things we do during this time of the year when we usually pay respect to family, friends and of course our religious beliefs.
举个例子,我姐姐告诉我,在我们25日聚会之前她已经去过至少10个不同的派对了,而我只是参加了24日和25日这两场,以及12月21日短暂的公司朋友聚会。我们这些同事一起午餐,花了至少2-3个小时吃饭和聊天,聊聊我们在中国工作时所共同经历过的有趣的事情。我们这群人总共有12个人,来自公司不同部门。我们经常去中国,已经持续了很多年。在这些年里,我们共同经历和克服了数以百计不同的事件与困难,我们总是乐于聊这些,因为其中很多非常有趣。好吧,这就是我们在每年这个时间里面会做的一些事情,尊重我们的家庭、朋友,当然了还有我们的宗教信仰。
All of these is from December 10 up to December 25th then from the 29th up to January 2 or 3 it starts all over again. Party after party, being the most important the one on the 31st of December ending on the 1st of the year. This one people usually party really hard, they stay late up at night entering into the next day where it wouldn’t be surprising to see people partying up to 4-5 am in the morning, listening to music, dancing, singing and obviously social drinking. The younger you are the harder you party. I am already an older person so to me just after 12 is more than enough but some people my age still stay up late up to 3-4 am. I just can’t do that anymore.
所有这些从12月10日到12月25日 ,然后,从12月29日到1月2、3日又再来一遍,派对一个接一个,最重要的当属12月31日那一场了,这一场派对人们通常都会玩得非常尽兴,他们会待到很晚直接跨年,如果你看到人们玩到早上4到5点也不要感到惊讶,他们听音乐、跳舞、唱歌还有社交喝酒。你越年轻就派对得越猛。我已经年长一些了,所以对我来说过了12点就有点受不了了,但是有些和我一样年纪的人仍然能够坚持到早上3到4点。我是没法再这样做了。
These parties are quite like the ones Chinese people have when they get together and go have fun at a KTV where you drink, dance, sing, play and drink of course. Very similar to what we have in Mexico but no KTV. These parties are usually held at personal homes or special night clubs that offer drinks, have live music and entertainment.
这些派对很像中国人去KTV,你在KTV喝酒、跳舞、唱歌、玩乐,和我们在墨西哥的派对很像,只是在墨西哥我们不去KTV,而是通常在某个人的家里或者一些特别的能够提供酒水、有现场音乐和娱乐的夜店。
For me is more family a couple of parties and the rest of the days just relax at home and do some personal strategic thinking on how to do better next year personally and with business.
对我来说,更多是和家人一起组织几个派对,剩下的时间就只是在家放松,针对下一年进行个人和商业上战略性的思考
Right now after the holiday parties of the 24th and 25th is now more of a relaxing time at my home in the USA where I am planning the things to do in 2019 to make our company better.
现在,在24日和25日的节日派对之后,我放松地待美国的家中,在这里计划2019年做些什么事情让我们公司变得更好。
I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy new western year 2019!
我祝你们所有人圣诞快乐,2019新年快乐!
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