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  Sock burning welcomes spring
马里兰风情:“烧袜子仪式”迎春天
[ 2006-03-24 08:50 ]

A sock lies on a stick during a sock burning ceremony, symbolizing that it will soon be warm enough to slide bare feet into boating shoes, Monday, March 20, 2006, in Annapolis, Md.

In sailing-crazy Annapolis, boaters celebrate the first day of spring with a ceremonial Burning of the Socks, signifying it will soon be warm enough to wear shoes without socks. 

The tradition began in the mid-1980s, when an employee at Annapolis Yacht Yard tired of his winter days doing engine maintenance on yachts and power boats. He stripped off his stinky socks, put them in a paint can with some lighter fluid and drank a beer while looking forward to warmer days ahead.

"There's a whole industry of people who work all winter long on people's boats so that they'll be in shape for their owners to go out and play all summer," said Jeff Holland, director of the Annapolis Maritime Museum.

But the sock-burning ritual now draws more than boatyard workers.

Even wealthy sailboat owners delight in throwing tube socks and panty hose on the flames in this town, whose residents have a special disdain for socks. Waterfront restaurants that serve big crab feasts draw men wearing leather loafers sans socks.

Annapolis resident Michael Busch, the speaker of the Maryland House, joked that socks constitute formal wear around here. The most hard-core sock haters refuse to wear them from the spring equinox until the first day of winter.

"The uniform is deck shoes and khaki pants in winter. The uniform is deck shoes and khaki shorts in summer," Holland said with a laugh.

The sock bonfire, he said, is a way of remembering Annapolis' bygone days of working-class watermen who brought in crabs in the summer and scraped the paint off wooden vessels in the winter.

These days, the bonfire revelers retire for crab cakes and oysters after burning their socks.

(Agencies)

在“航海之乡”安纳波利斯(美国马里兰州首府),船工们会在春季的第一天举行烧袜子仪式,以庆祝春天的到来。这标志着不久之后天气就会变暖,他们就可以光脚穿鞋了。

烧袜子迎春的传统始于20世纪80年代中期,当时安纳波利斯游艇修理场里有一个工人实在是厌倦了在游艇和汽艇上维修发动机的漫漫冬日。于是,他脱下臭不可闻的袜子,把它们扔进一个装有一些液体燃料的涂料罐里,又喝了罐啤酒,期待着温暖日子的到来。

安纳波利斯海事博物馆馆长杰夫·霍兰德说:“这个行业、所有的人整个冬天都在别人的船上工作,这样船只才能做好准备供船主外出游玩一夏天。”

但是烧袜子仪式现在已经不再是修船工人的“专利”了。

甚至连小镇上富有的船主也会高兴地把长筒袜和连裤袜扔进火堆。镇上的居民对袜子有一种特殊的蔑视。提供螃蟹大餐的码头餐馆还专门招揽那些穿着皮质懒汉鞋、不穿袜子的男人。

安纳波利斯小镇居民麦克尔·布切是马里兰州众议院的发言人。他开玩笑说,在这里,袜子是一种正式的穿着。最坚决的讨厌穿袜子的人从春分开始一直到立冬都不会穿袜子。

霍兰德笑着说到:“冬天船工的制服是甲板鞋和卡其布长裤;到了夏天就成了甲板鞋和卡其布短裤”。

他说,袜子篝火是纪念安纳波利斯船工们旧日生活的一种方式。过去,船工们夏天出海打回螃蟹,冬天就在木船上把船体上的漆一点点的刮下来。

如今,围着篝火狂欢的人们烧完袜子后,都会纷纷去吃蟹肉饼和牡蛎。


 

(中国日报网站编译)

 

Vocabulary:


stinky : 发臭的

panty hose:(女式)连袜裤

hard-core: stubbornly resistant to improvement or change(顽固的)