又中又英 | Bumper holiday | 褚簡寧

　　It's back to work and school now that the Lunar New Year holidays are over. Next are the Easter holidays, which coincide with the Ching Ming holiday. The two combined create a five-day break. Hong Kong's holiday calendar is ahead of the pack. If something is ahead of the pack, it means it's better or more advanced than others. Hong Kong's holidays include Christmas, New Year, Lunar New Year, Easter, and Reunification Day. It has 17 holidays in 2026. Nepal leads the pack with about 35 holidays annually. To lead the pack means to be the leader or the most successful.

　　Taiwan, where I often stay for extended periods, has a bumper holiday period for Lunar New Year. Taiwanese people had nine days for the Year of the Horse. That's almost as many holidays as the US has for the whole year! A bumper holiday is an unusually large, long, or successful holiday season. My Taipei serviced apartment is close to many shops and restaurants. Almost all were closed for the New Year except for shopping malls, department stores, and some supermarkets. Some areas were like ghost towns because most people had gone abroad or returned to their home villages.

　　A ghost town is a town with few or no remaining residents. But I was woken up at 6 am on the fifth day of the New Year by firecrackers, which Hong Kong banned long ago. I heard a lot of firecrackers that morning and on the seventh day of the New Year. My Hong Kong friends in Taipei explained that businesses set off firecrackers when they reopen after the New Year.

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　　現在農曆新年假期已過，大家都返工返學了。下一個就是復活節，恰巧碰上清明節。這兩個節日合成了五天的假期。香港的節日假表是 ahead of the pack——若某事物是 ahead of the pack，意即它是領先其他、出類拔萃的。香港假期包括聖誕、新年、農曆新年、復活節和回歸紀念日。2026年就有17天公眾假期。尼泊爾每年有35天假期，更是leads the pack—— to lead the pack就是做領袖，遙遙領先，或是最成功的。

　　我常延長時間逗留的台灣，則會放超長的假期（bumper holiday）去過農曆新年。台灣人有九天假期慶祝馬年來臨，那差不多是美國全年假期的總數！A bumper holiday就是特別地盛大、悠長又或成功的節假。我台北的服務式住宅就跟許多店舖和餐廳相近，除購物商場、百貨公司和一些超市之外，差不多所有商店都在放新年假期，不會開門營業。一些地區更像鬼城（ghost towns），因為大多數人都到了外地，又或回到家鄉過年。

　　A ghost town就是有很少或沒有甚麼居民餘留的城鎮。但我在正月初五早上六時，給爆竹聲吵醒了，而爆竹於很久以前在香港已被全面禁止。那天早上，以及在年初七，我聽到許多的爆竹聲。我住台北的香港朋友跟我解釋，當店舖放完新年假的時候，就會燒爆仗啟市。

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Michael Chugani褚簡寧
中譯：七刻