So if you're currently in China, chances are you're enjoying this long National Day holiday. This holiday is to celebrate the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Although the actual National Day is technically only one day, but over the years, the holiday gradually extended into a golden week as we call it. And for most parts of the China this is perhaps one of the most comfortable periods of the year, with lots of people from all parts of the country reporting good weather, comfortable temperature and sunshine. So whether you're lazing around at home with snacks and TV, spending some quality time with your family, or you decided to hit the road to see more of the country or the world, this is a much needed and treasured holiday for most Chinese.
So in today's episode, let's talk about National Day. We're going to take a look at some of the signature elements. 关于国庆日的关键元素Things you see, things you experience, and things you talk about. And later on in the episode, Lulu is also going to take you to some English speaking countries to take a look at their National Day.
So let's get started.
Talking about the signature elements of National Day celebration, we have to start with the day before the actual National Day. This is when the top leaders of the country pay tribute to national heroes at the monument to the People's Heroes.向人民英雄纪念碑致敬 Pay tribute is to pay respect, t-r-i-b-u-t-e, pay tribute to national heroes, and on the actual National Day, in the early morning, you will see over 100,000 people from all over the country gathering at Tian'anmen Square to see the flag-raising ceremony. The flag-raising. 升旗仪式There you will see the flag guards they're marching with the flag and you will hear National anthem played by military band. National anthem国歌 a-n-t-h-e-m. National anthem played by military band. 由军乐队奏国歌 And all of the country you will see a lot of festive decorations. Festive decorations, you know the word Festival, festive filled with the spirit of a festival. So festive decorations, and when it's a big year, for example, the 60th anniversary, there will be military parade. Military parade, p-a-r-a-d-e, 阅兵式，military parade, of course you can also have other parade that's non-military, some parts of the country will also have live concerts, and firework shows or this year we see a lot of light shows. 焰火表演或者灯光秀 Light shows. Generally during the National Day celebrations, you will experience patriotism, patriotism, 爱国主义情绪p-a-t-r-i-o-t-i-s-m. And this is also when a lot of Chinese would feel patriotic, and this is the adjective. 会感觉到爱国之情油然而生 It's a feeling of national pride, love of one's country, so this is about our national day, but have you ever wondered what is national day like in other countries? Unlike other public holidays which are normally associated with cultural heritage, or religious celebrations for example like Chinese New Year or Christmas. National Day in the country is often related to key political and historic moments.
Therefore national days around the world are often called Independence Day, Unity day, Revolution day, Liberation day or Constitution day. 因为国庆日通常有历史和政治的渊源，所以在很多国家的国庆日都会被叫做独立日,解放日等等Or in the cases of some countries, it is just the name of the country, for example Canada Day or Australia Day.
So let's take a look at some of the English speaking countries and their national day.

So first of all, let's look at the United States. This is another country that's very big on its national day celebrations. And for them, of course, it's 4th of July or they call it Independence Day.美国的国庆日也叫做独立日 If you remember your history lessons, you should know this is to celebrate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Declaration of Independence 独立宣言 This is when the continental congress declared that the 13 American colonies regarded themselves as free and independent states. 美国正式脱离英国独立 that they were no longer connected to the British crown.
For average Americans, Independence Day is usually associated with lots of fireworks, most of the major cities across the country would have firework displays, like the famous Macy's firework shows in New york city. Apart from fireworks, it's also related to parades, barbecues, carnivals, 嘉年华 carnivals, so lots of activity, food, picnic, concerts, family gatherings. And same as the national day in China, it's also a patriotic holiday.也是一个充满爱国情绪的节日 So the decorations are usually colored red, blue and white, the colors of the American flag. And many politicians will make it a point on this day to appear at a public event to say nice things about the nations, heritage, lords, history, society and people.
Compared with the enthusiasm about the national day in the United States, the neighbor in Canada celebrates their national day in a more relaxed manner, so Canada Day is celebrated across the country but there is no standard mode of celebration. Sometimes they will be parades, they will be carnivals as well, they will be barbecues, there will be a lot of outdoor public events, free music concerts as well as citizenship ceremonies. Citizenship ceremonies 新移民入籍的仪式也选择在这一天 So This is Canada Day.
Now let me take you to the Southern hemisphere let's look at Australia. Australia's national day is called Australia Day. But it is quite controversial. Controversial 是比较有争议的 Because this is the date that marks the anniversary of the arrival of the first fleet of British ships at port Jackson, New South Wales. 因为它纪念的是1788年英国第一舰队来到杰克逊港 and raising the flag of Great Britain at Sydney Cove.并在悉尼湾竖起来大不列颠旗帜 Although people believe this is the starting of Australia, a lot of the natives the indigenous Australians, indigenous, i-n-d-i-g-e-n-o-u-s 原住民 or people who support them believe that this is not the starting point, but it's the point of invasion, so they actually call it Invasion Day or Survival Day.一些原住民认为这是被殖民的历史 被侵略的历史 So there's a lot of controversy whether they should change the date or not. But in present Australia the celebrations of Australia Day is less about that part of history but more about celebrating the diverse society and the landscape of the nation, And it's usually related to more community and family events, and also citizenship ceremonies like in Canada.
In the end, let's take a look at the UK. If you ask a British person when is your national day I can guarantee you is different people will give you different answers and some people will simply say there are no national days. That's because Britain doesn't have any unique national day. Some people they do celebrate the Queen's official birthday,女王的官方生日被认为是英国的国庆日之一 if you're not sure about what the official birthday is, you can listen to the episode “About the Queen”. And there are also special dates relating to patron saints 守护圣者for different parts of the UK. For example, St George's Day in England, St Andrew's Day in Scotland, St David's Day in Wales and St Patrick's Day in Northern Ireland.
However, it is not really celebrated across the country, and nowadays there are different voices for choosing a national day for the United Kingdom. For example, some say the Queen's official birthday, others say Trafalgar Day, 也有人说要选择特拉法尔加战役，这也是英国最辉煌的战役之一 Some say Remembrance Sunday, 国殇纪念日/烈士纪念日. Recent years there are even people who are saying that they will use the Brexit date. 脱欧纪念日 But at this current of stage, the United Kingdom still doesn't have a unique national day that everyone recognizes it. So that is a tour around some English speaking countries and their national day.
In the end, I would like to share with you a little bit of my own experience. Now some of you probably know the National Day in France is called Bastille Day. 可能有人也知道法国的国庆日也叫做巴士底日 This is to commemorate the anniversary of Storming of Bastille on July 14th in 1789.这是为了纪念法国大革命攻占巴士底狱7月14日的国庆日 They will have firework displays, the lots of festive activities held, but perhaps many more people remember the date because of the terrorist attack in 2016 in Nice.两年前在尼斯的恐袭 It was especially shocking to me because exactly one year before the attack in 2015, I was with my family in that exact spot in Nice, on exactly the same night. I still remember the concert, the music, the fireworks, the crowd. Even till this day, it is still terrifying for me to think what if… It also makes me realize that sometimes the peace we take for granted should be appreciated a lot more. But in the end, I just want to say, no matter if you're currently in China, indulge in the festive mood and ambience, or if you're somewhere out in the world enjoying a nice trip, or striving for a better future, I wish you a very nice holiday. I will see you next time, bye.

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