Hat帽子

笪景行

Hats have quite a long history. People have found carvings of people wearing hats as far back as 3200 BCE. There were all kinds of reasons to wear hats—safety， religious1 reasons， warmth， fashion， social status2， and sun shading （to name a few）. Around the world， hats are often part of celebrations.

National Hat Day in the United States is on January 15th each year. This is a great holiday to celebrate as all you need is a hat！ You can make a hat out of paper or cloth or just about anything.

One very interesting hat celebration occurs in Switzerland. Its called the Onion Walk. The famous Swiss onion market opens in November with a parade3 of marching onions. Theyre not real onions， but the marchers wear tall （very tall） onion hats with faces painted on them. The marchers are accompanied4 by drummers to officially open the market.

In Portugal， there is a special holiday parade of young women wearing hats made of bread. Colored flowers decorate5 the bread， which is twisted6 into interesting shapes. This festival is called the Festival of Trays7. It takes once every four years！

In Japan， the one present you give your grandfather when he turned 61 is a red hat. Giving this hat is a special way of saying， “Happy Birthday and many more to come.”

帽子有很長的历史。人们发现了公元前3200年的戴帽子的人的雕刻品。戴帽子有各种各样的原因——安全、宗教原因、保暖、时尚、社会地位和遮阳（举几个例子来说）。在世界各地，帽子常常是庆祝活动的一部分。

美国的帽子日是在每年的1月15日。这是一个值得庆祝的节日，因为你只需要一顶帽子！你可以用纸、布或任何东西来做顶帽子。

在瑞士有一个非常有趣的与帽子有关的庆祝活动，叫做洋葱节。著名的瑞士洋葱集市在11月开幕，并且有洋葱游行。他们不是真正的洋葱，而是游行者戴着高高的（非常高的）洋葱头帽子，上面画着脸孔。游行队伍随着鼓手的伴奏，正式开启集市。

在葡萄牙，有一个特别的节日游行，年轻的少女们会戴着面包做成的帽子。彩花装饰着扭成有趣的形状的面包。这个节日叫做“托篮节”，每四年举行一次！

在日本，送给爷爷61岁生日的礼物是一顶红帽子。送这顶帽子是用来表达“生日快乐，祝年年有今日，岁岁有今朝”的一种特殊表达方式。

（英语原文选自：holidays.mrdonn.org）

【Notes】

1. religious [      ] adj. 宗教的 2. status [     ] n. 地位;重要身份

3. parade [    ] n. 游行;行进

4. accompany [      ] vt. 陪伴，伴随;伴奏 5. decorate [      ] vt. 装饰

6. twist [      ] v. 使弯曲 7. tray [     ] n. 托盘