方舟子的Blog

记者：Tania Branigan
英国《卫报》2010年2月12日
翻译：方舟子

这个日子听上去像是白头偕老的理想开端：由于罕见的巧合，在星期天，中国新年刚好是情人节。但是对许多中国情侣来说，正在来临的虎年一点也不浪漫。

焦急的情侣们赶在新年到来之前匆匆结合，担心阳历与阴历的失配产生了与不育有关的“寡妇年”。

把某个日子与祸福联系在一起，这在中国文化中根深蒂固，虽然在毛泽东时代它曾经受到压制。专家们说，现在这种信仰又开始流行。

在星期三——根据历书是本周最吉利的日子——在北京一家（结婚登记）办公室开始办公一个小时内，就聚集了近300对配偶。

虽然今天（星期五）没有那么吉利，新娘新郎们还是在虎年到来之前到结婚登记处“抓牛尾巴”。

“这是牛年的年终，我们听说明年全年都不宜结婚，”42岁的赵硕新一边拿起她的结婚证一边说。她的新丈夫，54岁的张宁说：“我们以前就计划好要结婚，但是我们太忙了。既然这是（牛年）最后一个工作日，我们想最好还是来把手续办了。”

王双和他的未婚妻都快24岁了，他们另有麻烦。“明年是我们的本命年——我们都属虎——所以对我们来说本来就都不宜结婚。”他说。

“我们并不是很在乎，但是我们的父母很在乎。”李婷对她的未来丈夫微笑着说。

丰台区登记处的钟先生说，为了满足额外的要求，他们延长了办公时间。“有人问我们是不是真的（明年不吉利），我们总是告诉他们，年轻人去迎合这种习俗是不对的。”他补充说。

“他们在乎很多事情；例如，6、8和9都被看做是结婚的好日子。”

对许多人来说，这些因素——以及实际的考虑——将会消除来年的阴影。虽然2008年也是一个寡妇年，但是与数字8联系在一起的好运胜过了坏运——特别是对在8月8日结婚的超过11万对的配偶来说。

西方影响也在慢慢地渗透。钟先生补充说，有些年轻人认为2月14日是一个吉利日子，虽然4通常被认为不吉利，因为它和“死”谐音。

反对迷信的著名斗士方舟子说，明年被认为有问题，是因为“立春”——在根据太阳历编的节气中它代表春天的开始——在今年的2月4日，而农历要在10天后过新年。这意味着虎年无春。

因为春天是和阳联系在一起的——在道家阴阳学说中它与男性和生殖有关——结果就是个“寡妇”年。有人还认为白虎年对男人也不吉。

“遵循这类传统习俗变得很流行。在过去只有农村那样的落后地区会相信这一套，但是现在越来越多的城市居民也相信。”方舟子补充说。

“每19个农历年就有7年没有立春。没有证据表明在这些年结婚的妇女更容易当寡妇。”

对“花庭希圃”婚礼公司来说，这种信仰让他们在一月份生意兴隆——客户多达平时的三倍——但是明年的预定量下降了，该公司焦急的老板赵先生说。

但是那些计划再等12个月的情侣也许应该再考虑一下。有人担心2011年能被证明同样不宜结婚，因为那个数字的后两位数看上去就像两个光棍站在一起。

Chinese couples rush to marry before tiger pounces

Solar and lunar mismatch means weddings have been brought forward to avoid marrying in a ‘widow year’

Tania Branigan Beijing
guardian.co.uk, Friday 12 February 2010 15.51 GMT

It sounds like the ideal date to begin a lifetime together: in a rare alignment, on Sunday the Chinese new year falls on Valentine’s Day. But for many couples in China there is nothing romantic about the approaching year of the tiger.

Anxious couples have been hastening to tie the knot before the day arrives, concerned that the mismatch between solar and lunar calendars has produced a “widow year”, associated with infertility.

The association of certain dates with good or ill fortune has deep roots in Chinese culture, although it was shunned under Mao Zedong. Now, say experts, such beliefs are flourishing again.

On Wednesday - the most auspicious day this week, according to almanacs - almost 300 couples converged on one Beijing office within an hour of it opening.

Although today was less well-starred, brides and grooms still arrived at registries to “catch the tail of the ox”, before the tiger arrived.

“This is the end of the ox year and we heard the whole of the next one will be bad for marriage,” said Zhao Shuoxin, 42, as she clutched her wedding certificate. Her new husband, 54-year-old Zhang Ning, said: “We planned to get married before but we have been so busy. Since this is the last working day we thought we’d better come along right away.”

For Wang Shuang and his fiancée, both turning 24, there was an additional complication. “Next year is our birth year - we are tigers - so it’s not lucky to marry then anyway,” he said.

“We don’t really care about it so much, but our parents care a lot,” added Li Ting, smiling at her husband-to-be.

Mr Zhong of the Fengtai registry said it had extended opening hours to meet the extra demand. “Some ask us whether it’s true [that next year is unlucky] and we always tell them it is wrong for young people to follow such trends,” he added.

“They care about lots of things; for example, 6,8 and 9 are all seen as good dates to get married.”

For many, those factors - as well as practical considerations - will erase any shadow over the coming year. While 2008 was also a widow year, the good luck associated with the figure 8 outweighed the stain - especially for the more than 110,000 couples who married on 8 August.

Western influences are creeping in as well. Some young people thought 14 February was an auspicious date, Zhong added, even though 4 is usually considered unlucky because it sounds like the word for death.

Fang Zhouzi, a well-known campaigner against superstition, said the problem with the coming year is that “lichun” - the beginning of spring in the solar-based agrarian calendar - fell on 4 February this year, while the new year is 10 days later. That means the year of the tiger has no spring.

Because spring is associated with yang - the part of the yin-yang Taoist duality associated with maleness and procreation - the result is a “widow” year. Some also think that the tiger year is not good for men.

“Following these traditions has become popular. In the past only people in backward areas like villages would believe in it, but now more and more city dwellers do,” Fang added.

“Every 19 lunar years include seven years without lichun. There is no evidence that women married in those years can become widows more easily.”

For the Huatinxipu wedding company the belief has brought a bumper January - with three times as many customers as usual - but a decrease in bookings for the coming year, said its anxious boss Mr Zhao.

But couples planning to wait 12 months may want to think again. Some fear 2011 could prove equally unsuitable for weddings, because the two ones at the end of the date look like singletons standing side by side.

Additional research by Chen Shi