趣谈英国文化：为什么圣诞节要戴纸帽子

圣诞节戴纸帽子是英国特有的圣诞习俗。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。同时，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，就连伊莉莎白女王在这一天也会戴纸帽子哦!

为什么英国人圣诞节要戴纸帽子?

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!

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!

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。

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。

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。

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。

Why do the British wear paper hats at Christmas lunch?

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!

So why this quaint tradition? Where do these paper hats come from? The answer is the Christmas Cracker.

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 paperthat react with friction so that when the cracker is pulled apart by two people, the cracker makes a bang.

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.

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.

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.