鲁达 2016圣诞节抄写内容：圣诞卡的起源
Christmas cards圣诞卡的起源：
the custom of sending Christmas cards started in Britain in 1840 when the first ' penny post ' public postal deliveries began。(helped System，the public postal service was the 19th century ' s communication revolution，just as email is for us today)as printing
圣诞贺卡可以追溯到1840年统一便士邮报(uniform penny post)的出现。这项改革实现了英国国内邮件递送费用的标准化。
(新铁路运输系统为公共邮政服务系统创造了条件，成就了19世纪的通信革命，与电子邮件对现代人的影响无异)。随着印刷术的改进，从1860年起，每年会生产大量的圣诞贺卡。当邮寄非密封的卡片只要半便士(普通信件邮费的一半)时，邮寄贺卡变得异常流行。Traditionally, Christmas cards showed religious pictures - Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, or other parts of the Christmas story. Today, pictures are often jokes, winter pictures, Father Christmas, or romantic scenes of life in past times.
从传统上来讲，圣诞贺卡都印有一些基督教方面的图片，比如圣母玛丽，约瑟和小耶稣，或者其它包含有圣诞故事意义的图片。今天的圣诞贺卡通常是笑话、冬季景致，圣诞老人以及一些反应生活中浪漫场面的图片。
为什么圣诞节要戴红色的圣诞帽，英国人圣诞节戴纸帽子的悠久传统
All over Britain on Christmas Day, families can be found sitting around their dining tables enjoying a traditional lunch of roast turkey with all the trimmings - and all, regardless of age, wearing coloured paper hats. It is rumoured that even the Queen wears her paper hat over lunch!
圣诞节当天，全英国的家庭都会坐在餐桌前，吃一顿传统的圣诞大餐，塞满了各种馅料的烤火鸡。无论年龄老幼，所有人都会在头上戴一顶彩色纸做成的纸帽子。据说，就连伊莉莎白女王也会戴纸帽子哦!
So why this quaint tradition? Where do these paper hats come from? The answer is the Christmas Cracker.
那为什么会有这个古怪的传统呢?戴纸帽子的传统来源于哪里?答案就在另一项圣诞传统活动——圣诞拉炮!
A Christmas Cracker is a cardboard paper tube, wrapped in brightly coloured paper and twisted at both ends. There is a banger inside the cracker, two strips of chemically impregnated paper that react with friction so that when the cracker is pulled apart by two people, the cracker makes a bang.
圣诞拉炮是用硬纸板做的纸筒，再用色彩鲜艳的彩纸包裹在外面，两端拧紧。在拉炮里会有一个爆竹，当两个人拉动拉炮两端时，拉炮里的两条浸渍纸就会发生摩擦，发出“嘣”的响声。
Inside the cracker there is a paper crown made from tissue paper, a motto or joke on a slip of paper and a little gift.
拉炮里会装有纸做的皇冠、写在纸上的名言或笑话，还会有一些小礼物。
Christmas crackers are a British tradition dating back to Victorian times when in the early 1850s, London confectioner Tom Smith started adding a motto to his sugared almond bon-bons which he sold wrapped in a twisted paper package.
圣诞拉炮成为英国传统的历史可以追溯到维多利亚时期，约在19世纪50年代早期，伦敦的一个糖果商汤姆-史密斯把写有名言的纸片放在了他售卖的糖果包装里，包装方式就是在糖果外用纸将两头拧紧。
The paper hat was added to the cracker in the early 1900s. The cracker was soon adopted as a traditional festive custom and today virtually every household has at least one box of crackers to pull over Christmas.
到了20世纪初，纸帽子也被放到了圣诞拉炮里。很快，拉炮就成了英国人过圣诞节的传统习俗。现在，所有的英国家庭至少都会准备一盒拉炮留到圣诞节时来拉响。