英美文化：为什么圣诞节的代表颜色是红配绿？

　　看到红红绿绿的装饰和小灯，你就知道，圣诞节快到了。为什么红色和绿色会成为圣诞季的专属配色呢?

　　As the last Thanksgiving leftover is consumed and the calendar flips to December, the unmistakable red-and-green flood of the Christmas season comes into view. The two colors fill malls and living rooms around the world, and adorn nearly every decoration, strand of lights, and ugly sweater on store shelves. The Christmas season is inextricably connected to this color combination—but why?

　　随着感恩节大餐的最后一点剩菜被扫尽，日历翻到了12月，圣诞季满目的红红绿绿开始映入眼帘。世界各地的商场和客厅都布满了这两种颜色，几乎每一处装饰、彩灯甚至连商店货架上的丑毛衣都是红配绿。为什么圣诞季和这种配色密不可分呢?

　　While there may be no definitive consensus on how this color scheme came to be, there are a few interesting candidates for the official answer.

　　尽管对于红配绿是如何成为圣诞专属配色并无公论，但还是有几种有趣的说法可供参考。

　　　CANDIDATE 1: PARADISE TREES 

　　　　起源一：传统剧目《天堂》中的树 

　　Probably the most obscure of the hypotheses suggests red and green may go back to Paradise Plays, which were a traditional play performed on Christmas Eve about the Fall of Man and Adam and Eve’s banishment from the Garden of Eden. The story can’t be recreated without a tree, and since it was winter, any good-looking tree was probably an evergreen. You also need a fruit to hang from it—say, a red apple or a pomegranate.

　　这很可能是各种假说中最晦涩的一种，这种说法认为，圣诞节和红配绿的关联可能起源于圣诞前夜上演的传统戏剧《天堂》，该剧讲述的是人类的堕落以及亚当夏娃被逐出伊甸园的故事。这出戏离不开树，而冬天里只有常青树还好看点。树上还需要悬挂水果——红苹果或者红石榴。

　　It’s widely thought that as the Paradise Play died out, the tree remained—and turned into the modern Christmas tree. The red of the fruit and the green of the tree linked the two colors in popular imagination with the Christmas season.

　　人们普遍认为，在戏剧《天堂》淡出舞台后，戏中的树却保留了下来，并演变成现代的圣诞树。水果的红色和树的绿色成为大众心目中圣诞季的代表颜色。

　　CANDIDATE 2: HOLLY 

　　　　起源二：冬青树 

　　Religious Studies professor Bruce David Forbes theorizes that medieval Europeans were looking for something to do during the bleakness of winter. So, why not party?

　　宗教学教授布鲁斯·戴维·福布斯的理论是，中世纪的欧洲人寻找可以在凄冷的冬天做的事。于是他们想，何不开个派对呢?

　　And that party “would feature evergreens, as signs of life when everything else seems to have died, plus other plants that not only stay green but even bear fruit in the middle of winter, like holly or mistletoe.” (Although mistletoe berries are actually white.) These bright reds and greens in the middle of winter may have made them natural candidates for the colors of Christmas.

　　这个派对“将会有常青树，在万物萧瑟时常青树象征着生命，还有一些常青树能在深冬中结果，比如冬青树或槲寄生”。(不过槲寄生的果实是白色的。)深冬之中的这抹鲜红色和绿色很自然地成为了圣诞节的代表颜色。