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每年的１月２６日，澳大利亚人庆祝国庆日“澳大利亚日”，这个日子是为了纪念在澳大利亚的第一批欧洲定居点的建立。１７８８年的这天，亚瑟？菲利浦船长在悉尼地区的杰克逊港口登陆，从这天开始，这片土地便被称为“澳大利亚”。
作为一个公众假期，澳大利亚国庆只有一天时间。在中国，人们喜欢在国庆节外出旅行。一些澳大利亚人在国内也这样做，但为数不多。大部分的澳大利亚人都待在家中，如果要去旅行，一般都会选择在夏天的某个时候。
澳大利亚人的庆祝方式也不同。一些人对国庆节并不是那么在乎，觉得跟平常的任何一天没什么区别。许多人在自家院子里，和朋友家人在一起开个小型派对。
在澳大利亚日，许多城镇都升起澳大利亚国旗，中国也是如此。有时政府官员会加入其中，甚至不乏一些政要。通常升国旗时演奏国歌，有时会由乐队演奏，或者由合唱团歌唱。而且，皇家澳大利亚空军“轮盘”特技飞行表演队会进行特技表演。
对我而言，和澳大利亚相比，中国的国庆是一件大事。首先你会发现，中国有７天长假，而澳大利亚只有一天。中国燃放许多的焰火，在澳大利亚也是这样，但只能在规定区域。澳大利亚人永远不愿意身处成千上万人之中，但中国人似乎一点儿都不介意。比如，今年有数不清的中国人涌入了上海外滩。这条街上被人挤满了，你几乎没有移动脚步的余地。澳大利亚人憎恶这样的情形――当然，他们也喜欢和朋友聚在一起，但却根本不会选择在如此拥挤的地方。
在澳大利亚，每年国庆时间都一样，人们能提前计划。在中国则有所不同。因为人们并不知道休假的确切起止日期，难以提前作假日安排。
还有一件让外国人觉得奇怪的事情，就是你必须在周末工作，为了弥补在长假中错过的工作日。对我们而言，这真是很莫名其妙。
对外国人而言，国庆节时的中国到处都是人，我们真的不喜欢这样。去年国庆，我去了杭州和黄山。当然，这两个地方都很美，而且应该是平静和令人放松之处。然而，我的假期并不那么令人惬意。在杭州，我亲眼看见人们在肯德基外排长队等候，朋友拍了一张这样的照片，因为我们简直不敢相信这里竟然有这么多人。等着乘船去岛上时，我们和几百个人一起等候，人们互相推攘，并且没有什么耐心。那真是最可怕的噩梦――我们从来不知道哪个国家的国庆日会是这样。
我不知道这样的情况是否也让中国人感到不舒服，但确实令在中国的外国人感到不快，这也就是为什么在国庆节这天，我们总是在家里待着或者出国的原因所在！
（本文作者在上海某医科大学任外教）
原文 By Belinda
Both Australia and China celebrate a national holiday. They day
represents a pride for their country.
Australians celebrate their national day, known as Australia Day, on the 26
January. The day commemorates the founding of the first
European settlement in Australia. On this day in 1788 Captain Arthur
Phillip landed at Port Jackson in Sydney. This is when he claimed
Australia for the British Empire. It started as just a holiday for New
South Wales (the state in which Sydney is located) but over time it grew into a
national holiday. The idea of australia Day has changed. It started
as a celebration of Australians as being like their British brothers and
sisters, because that is who the first settlers were. But today's
Australia Day is about the multiculturalism of Australia - people from all
around the world live in Australia and we like to celebrate this.
It is a public holiday but unlike the Chinese national day, it's only a
holiday for one day. In China, people like to go away for the national
holiday. Some Australians do this but it is not as common. Most
people just stay in their local area, and if they travel it's probably part of
their summer holiday anyway.
Australians celebrate in different ways. Some people don't pay much
attention to the national holiday and just treat it the same as any other
day. Many people just have a small party in their backyard with friends
and family. Most years this is what I have done in Australia.
Sometimes I just laze around the house with my parents or my sister, not really
doing anything special but enjoying the holiday. However, when i was a
student, the holiday fell during the school holidays anyway (the school holidays
are usually from December to the end of January, and for university students
November until the beginning of March). Therefore it was not really a
special or appreciated holiday, because i was already on holidays. Often i
spent these holidays at the beach when I was growing up.
When I was a teenager I began listening to a national radio station called
'Triple J'. This radio station is not commercial, that means it doesn't
play advertisements, and the music is more varied and alternative than other
radio stations. Every year they let the audience or listeners vote for
their favourite one hundred songs, and then they play the songs from number 100
to number 1 on Australia Day. Now this countdown has become very popular
especially with young adults or people aged between about 18 and 35. Some
people have a bbq or party in their backyard or around the swimming pool.
They listen to the countdown on the radio, perhaps drink some beer and eat meat
(sausages) and salads.
In many cities and towns Australia Day is celebrated by the raising of the
Australian flag, similar to the raising of the Chinese flag. Sometimes a
member of the government will be involved or an important local or national
figure. Usually when the flag is raised the Australian national anthem
(song) is played. Sometimes a band plays or a choir sings. Also, the
RAAF Roulettes (aeroplanes belonging to the army) do a display in the air.
To me it seems that China's national day is a bigger deal than the
Australian national day. you can first see this because Chinese people
take a week long holiday whereas Australians only have one day. I noticed
that all the taxis have flags stuck in their windows, in Australia, you do not
see this. Chinese people have a lot of fireworks, and in Australia we do
too, but only in designated areas. you are not allowed to have them
everywhere. Australian people would never want to be in a place where
there are thousands of other people, but Chinese people don't seem to mind
this. For example, this year, a lot of people went to the Bund in
Shanghai. The whole street was completely full of people so you couldn't
even move. Australians would hate something like this - they would like to
be with other Australians, of course, but not in a crowded space, and they
wouldn't go there in the first place if they knew it would be so crowded.
Another difference is that the Chinese national holidays are never confirmed
until a few weeks before the actual holiday. In Australia it's the same
every year, so people can plan things in advance. It's difficult in China
because if people don't know the dates of the holiday, they can't book anything
in advance. The other thing that foreigners find very strange and that
would never happen in Australia is the fact that you have to work on the weekend
to make up the time that you missed during the week. To us this a very
bizarre concept - if you're going to have a holiday, you have a holiday! You
don't need to go to work on the weekend. To foreigners, China seems like a
bit of a difficult place to be during the national holiday. Everywhere is
crowded and we really dislike that.
Last year during the Chinese national holiday I went to Hangzhou and
Huangshan. Of course, both of these places are beautiful and should be
calm and relaxing. However, my holiday wasn't so enjoyable because of the
thousands of people that were visiting at the same time. In Hangzhou, I
remember seeing people queueing outside KFC and my friend took a photo because
we just couldn't believe the amount of people that were there. When we
were waiting to take the boat to the islands, we were waiting with hundreds of
other people and we had to wait for a very long time. People were pushy
and impatient. It was quite annoying. Then in Huangshan it was even
worse. There were so many people in the most beautiful setting that it was
hard to appreciate. Tour leaders with megaphones were hurting my ears and
everyone was wearing matching hats. My friend and i just wanted to enjoy
the scenery alone, but there were people everywhere so it was impossible.
This was our worst nightmare - we would never imagine a national holiday to be
like this, and it wouldn't be in our own country.
I don't know if this sort of thing bothers Chinese people, but it does
bother foreigners in China, which is why we often stay inside or go
abroad!!
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