腊八节

腊八节 （Laba Festival），俗称“腊八”，是古代欢庆丰收、感谢祖先和神灵的祭祀 （sacrificial）节日。民间对于腊八节的起源说法不一。其中的一种说法是：三千多年前，人们要在阴历第十二个月举办一种名叫“腊”的献祭仪式。那时汉字“猎物”和“腊”是可以相互替代的 （interchangeable），之后人们就用“腊”指代两者。由于这个节日在腊月的第八天庆祝，人们后来补充了数字8（汉语“八”）。因而有了现在的“腊八”。中国人有在腊八节喝腊八粥的传统。

翻译点拨

1. 祭祀节日：可译为festival of sacrifice。

2. 对于……说法不一：此处“说法”可译为opinions。“不一”即“不同”，可译为vary或different。

3. 相互替代的：在文中给出了注释，如果没给可以简单地翻译成can replace each other。

4. 腊八粥：翻译为Laba rice porridge。注意专有名词的首字母要大写。

参考译文

Laba Festival

Laba Festival, commonly known as“Laba”, is a festival of sacrifice to celebrate the harvest and express people's gratitude to their ancestors and gods in ancient times. Among the people, opinions on the origin of Laba Festival vary. One of the versions is that over 3,000 years ago people held a kind of sacrificial rite called“La”in the twelfth lunar month. The Chinese characters for“liewu (prey)”and“la (the twelfth month)”were interchangeable then, and later people used“La”to refer to both. Since the festival was held on the eighth day of“la month (the twelfth lunar month)”, people later added the number eight (“ba”in Chinese) to“La”, which is how the current Laba came into being. Chinese people have the tradition of eating Laba rice porridge at the Laba Festival.

知识小贴士

腊八粥（Laba rice porridge）也叫“七宝五味粥”。我国喝腊八粥的历史已有一千多年。最早开始于宋代。每逢腊八这一天，不论是朝廷（court）、官府、寺院还是黎民百姓家都要做腊八粥。到了清朝，喝腊八粥的风俗更是盛行。在宫廷，皇帝、皇后、皇子等都要向文武大臣（the civil and military ministers）、侍从宫女赐腊八粥，并向各个寺院发放米、果等供僧侣食用。在民间，家家户户也要做腊八粥，祭祀祖先，馈赠亲朋好友，合家团聚在一起食用。腊八粥熬好之后，要先敬神祭祖。之后要赠送亲友，一定要在中午之前送出去，最后才是全家人食用。如果保存着吃了几天还有剩下来的腊八粥，却是好兆头（good omen），取其“年年有余”的意义。