The establishment of “教师节(jiào shī jié) Teacher’s Day”, aims to recognize the effort made by teachers in the field of education and falls on September 10th every year.
At the beginning of the new school year (usually September 1st), students would start preparing the activities to show their teacher’s respect.
教师 (jiào shī): n teacher.
Examples:
wǒ shì gè yǒu 21 nián jiào líng de jiào shī.
我是个有21年教龄的教师。
I’m a teacher with 21 years of teaching experience.
tā kāi shǐ le zì jǐ de jiào shī shēng yá.
她开始了自己的教师生涯。
She started her career as a teacher.
The way to celebrate
Teacher’s day is not a traditional Chinese festival, thus there are different customs of celebration.
Generally, schools will hold a ceremony on this day and issue certificates, and schedule a recital with singing and dancing performed by students. Moreover, students can deliver their sincere blessings and wishes via blackboard messages, greeting cards, paintings, and more.
The influence of this festival
Positive
The festival reflects that the teacher has been respected by all society, as more and more people have recognized that education is vital for the prosperity and future development of a country.
Through many types of benefits and “补贴(bǔ tiē) subsidies”, the enthusiasm of teachers engaged in the educational field has been improved greatly.
补贴(bǔ tiē): n. subsidies
Examples:
tā jīngcháng zhuànqián bǔtiē jiāyòng.
她经常赚钱补贴家用
She often makes money to subsidize her family.
gōng zī zhī wài lìng jiā bǔ tiē.
工资之外另加补贴。
The subsidy will be added to the regular salary.
Negative
With the development of the economy, the custom where parents send money and gifts to teachers has evolved gradually, aiming to receive better treatment from teachers for their children.
However, in accordance with the provisions of Chinese Criminal Law ruled on November 5th, 2007, teachers acting as members of public institutions, if they receive money, gifts, or other property interests of a large amount sent from parents, they will be suspected and charged with bribery.
Derivative culture
The first set of stamps for Teacher’s Day was released on August 27th, 1947, which had patterns including a Confucius statue, the table of Confucius’ lecture, the tomb of Confucius, and the Grand Hall of Confucius.
Other countries celebrate Teacher’s day on different dates. Even though the dates vary and the ways in which teachers are shown respect, respect for teachers is an unchangeable custom since ancient times to the present.
One sentence of the “诗(shī) poem” related to teachers goes like this:
令公桃李满天下(lìng gōng táolǐ mǎn tiānxià)，何用堂前更种花 ( hé yòng tángqián gèng zhònghuā)?
Literal meaning: The world is full of peaches and plums sowed by you, why plant flowers in front of the hall?
Note: “peaches and plums” mean those students who are educated by a famous teacher and graduated successfully.
This “诗(shī) poem” was composed by the author and a teacher while they viewed flowers together.
诗 (shī): n. poem
