[双语阅读]万圣节只为娱乐 购物才*重要

2015-10-30 08:00:00 来源：网络 作者：朗阁小编

六成90后对万圣节感兴趣，争相购置节日物品；八成90后不知道万圣节渊源，过节只为图热闹。

　　现如今。万圣节已经脱掉宗教色彩，演变为西方节日，近年来也受到很多国内学生们的喜爱。今年的万圣节是10月31日，某网站对2054名90后进行了一次节日特别调查，受访的90后表示，万圣节已经成为了继情人节和圣诞节之后，*受他们欢迎的西方节日。好奇怪哈，不管是圣洁一方还是邪恶一方，我们的90后来者不拒，因为，对他们来讲，起源不重要，方式不重要，重要的只是：购物！！没想到吧？~下面和雅思培训小编一起阅读双语文章，在娱乐的同时*英语水平！~


六成90后对万圣节感兴趣，争相购置节日物品

　　调查显示，64.2%的90后表示对万圣节的感兴趣；51.5%表示会留意同城的万圣节活动，想要参加。

　　90后大二学生表示：“学校的跨文化交流社团会在万圣节搞派对活动。。。我前几天还和他们一起去校外小市场采购了万圣节的用具等物资，万圣节面具、骷髅面具、南瓜灯、巫婆帽、黑色披风等商品都在*之列。男生宿舍楼里有的角落还被同学布置起了万圣节风情，营造起鬼屋的气氛。”

八成90后不知道万圣节渊源，过节只为图热闹

　　接受调查表示对万圣节有兴趣的90后中，83.7%的人表示不知道万圣节的具体源起，是因为喜欢娱乐活动，图热闹才关注万圣节的。另有16.3%的90后表示了解万圣节的源起。

　　在西方，部分人相信，故人的亡魂会在万圣节之夜这天回到故居地，在活人身上找寻生灵，借此再生，而且这是亡魂们获得再生的*希望。

　　活着的人惧怕亡魂夺去生命，于是在这天夜里熄掉炉火、烛光，让亡魂找不到活人。同时人们又把自己打扮成妖魔鬼怪，并且用芜菁、甜菜或马铃薯雕刻成可怕面孔，把游魂吓走。后来由于价格和质地的原因，逐渐统一改用南瓜来雕刻恐怖面孔，此时南瓜灯才开始成为万圣节的重要标志。逐渐地，在万圣节之夜，有小孩穿上鬼和精灵的衣服，出去吓邻居。演变到后来，大约四十年前，人们开始请小朋友吃糖果。

　　这一习俗完全违背基督教教义，但是奇怪的事居然演变成和圣诞节一样热闹流行的节日了。当然，真正的基督教徒也不过圣诞节。

　　在购物这一点上，东西方是一致的，看看美国人怎么疯狂花钱吧。



　【英文文稿】

　　Thousands of shuttered US stores are coming back to life as Halloween retailers. In New Jersey, one abandoned store is being filled with thousands of costumes, accessories, and some dastardly displays.

　　This abandoned big-box store in aNew Jerseycity is coming back to life as a Halloween retailer.

　　Spirit Halloween, a chain of more than 1,100 pop-up shops across the country, is reinventing what was once a Staples store.

　　They''ve filled it with 4,000 costumes and accessories, with themes ranging from zombies to superheroes and princesses to prison inmates.

　　They''ve even decorated it with gory displays, including this ghoul-filled subway and a swamp surrounded by bloody and screaming animated creatures.

　　But the Spirit Halloween stores only have brief lives.

　　Like other Halloween retailers and pop-ups which sell Christmas trees and holiday decorations, the company must make its revenue for the year in less than three months.

　　Steven Silverstein is the CEO of Spirit Halloween. He says getting stores up and running requires year-round planning and then execution in a matter of weeks.

　　"We are equivalent to an army operation in terms of the way we mobilize and have to move product because we are getting things in place long before we are physically ready to go and everything has to happen on time and as the next event. It''s their time and their responsibility. That calendar is absolutely iron clad and we have this whole process mapped out back to day one. We''re already well into next-year''s Halloween in terms of preparation, in terms of product development."

　　Planning for this Halloween began more than a year ago, and preparations for 2016 are already underway.

　　It takes 18 months to design and produce displays like the subway and swamp. They''ve been set up in all Spirit Halloween stores.

　　The company is now several months into that process.

　　Early in the year, employees scout around for potential sites, a process that can be helped along when big national retailers close some of their stores.

　　Some of the sites are in vacant stores in shopping malls, while others like the Paramus Spirit Halloween occupy stores shuttered by big chains.

　　A second Spirit Halloween in Paramus is just five miles up the road in a former discount department store.

　　High visibility is key, and both stores are on New Jersey''s Route 17, one of the state''s busiest shopping boulevards.

　　Spirit Halloween starts receiving merchandise in May and hiring in June, swelling its employment from hundreds to more than 20,000.

　　By summer, sites have been chosen.

　　By mid-August, the stores are cleaned, painted, repairs are made and managers ensure that they meet local building and fire codes.

　　 Trucks with fixtures arrive and in less than two weeks most of the locations go from bare walls and floors to racks and shelves filled with costumes, accessories, props and home decor.

　　Spirit Halloween was started in 1983, as the holiday''s focus was evolving from children and trick-or-treating to parties for people of all ages.

　　 Adults'' interest in continuing or reviving the Halloween fun of their youth has turned the holiday into a revenue machine for retailers.

　　"I learned that about Home Deport a long time ago where they talked about that they created this industry of ''Do It Yourself.'' The fact that they were there enabled people to start to think about ''Do It Yourself.'' Well here, we think that way about Halloween. We''ve created so many different points of entry: the party, the costumes, the home decor."

　　Some of the most popular costumes for children this season are expected to be based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and adults who watched the Turtles on TV and in movies when they were kids are also expected to be dressed as the reptilian superheroes.

　　 Silverstein also expects girls to want costumes based on the Disney TV movie, "The Descendants," the story of the children of Disney characters like Cruella De Vil and Cinderella.

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