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Why do the British wear paper hats at Christmas lunch?
為什么英國(guó)人圣誕節(jié)要戴紙帽子？
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！
圣誕節(jié)當(dāng)天，全英國(guó)的家庭都會(huì)坐在餐桌前，吃一頓傳統(tǒng)的圣誕大餐，塞滿了各種餡料的烤火雞。無(wú)論年齡老幼，所有人都會(huì)在頭上戴一頂彩色紙做成的紙帽子。據(jù)說(shuō)，就連伊莉莎白女王也會(huì)戴紙帽子哦！
So why this quaint tradition? Where do these paper hats come from? The answer is the Christmas Cracker.
那為什么會(huì)有這個(gè)古怪的傳統(tǒng)呢？戴紙帽子的傳統(tǒng)來(lái)源于哪里？答案就在另一項(xiàng)圣誕傳統(tǒng)活動(dòng)——圣誕拉炮！
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.
圣誕拉炮是用硬紙板做的紙筒，再用色彩鮮艷的彩紙包裹在外面，兩端擰緊。在拉炮里會(huì)有一個(gè)爆竹，當(dāng)兩個(gè)人拉動(dòng)拉炮兩端時(shí)，拉炮里的兩條浸漬紙就會(huì)發(fā)生摩擦，發(fā)出“嘣”的響聲。
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.
拉炮里會(huì)裝有紙做的皇冠、寫(xiě)在紙上的名言或笑話，還會(huì)有一些小禮物。
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.
圣誕拉炮成為英國(guó)傳統(tǒng)的歷史可以追溯到維多利亞時(shí)期，約在19世紀(jì)50年代早期，倫敦的一個(gè)糖果商湯姆-史密斯把寫(xiě)有名言的紙片放在了他售賣的糖果包裝里，包裝方式就是在糖果外用紙將兩頭擰緊。
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世紀(jì)初，紙帽子也被放到了圣誕拉炮里。很快，拉炮就成了英國(guó)人過(guò)圣誕節(jié)的傳統(tǒng)習(xí)俗。現(xiàn)在，所有的英國(guó)家庭至少都會(huì)準(zhǔn)備一盒拉炮留到圣誕節(jié)時(shí)來(lái)拉響。
