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.”

帽子有很長的歷史。人們發現了公元前3200年的戴帽子的人的雕刻品。戴帽子有各種各樣的原因——安全、宗教原因、保暖、時尚、社會地位和遮陽（舉幾個例子來說）。在世界各地，帽子常常是慶祝活動的一部分。

美國的帽子日是在每年的1月15日。這是一個值得慶祝的節日，因為你只需要一頂帽子！你可以用紙、布或任何東西來做頂帽子。

在瑞士有一個非常有趣的與帽子有關的慶祝活動，叫做洋蔥節。著名的瑞士洋蔥集市在11月開幕，并且有洋蔥游行。他們不是真正的洋蔥，而是游行者戴著高高的（非常高的）洋蔥頭帽子，上面畫著臉孔。游行隊伍隨著鼓手的伴奏，正式開啟集市。

在葡萄牙，有一個特別的節日游行，年輕的少女們會戴著面包做成的帽子。彩花裝飾著扭成有趣的形狀的面包。這個節日叫做“托籃節”，每四年舉行一次！

在日本，送給爺爺61歲生日的禮物是一頂紅帽子。送這頂帽子是用來表達“生日快樂，祝年年有今日，歲歲有今朝”的一種特殊表達方式。

（英語原文選自：holidays.mrdonn.org）

【Notes】

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

3. parade [? ? ] n. 游行;行進

4. accompany [? ? ? ] vt. 陪伴，伴隨;伴奏 5. decorate [? ? ? ] vt. 裝飾

6. twist [? ? ? ] v. 使彎曲 7. tray [? ? ?] n. 托盤