Each year, we celebrate many holidays here in America.

    On January 1, we welcome the coming of a new year like many people in other countries. And we have another, four holidays on the first day of a month: April Fool's Day, May Day, Friendship Day ( Aug.1 ) and Grandparents Day ( Sept.1).

    The most important holiday for the young people comes in February. It is Valentine's Day. Lots of boys give red roses to girls as a present.

    People celebrate some holidays for their family members. We say thanks to our mothers in May and celebrate Father's Day in the following month. In November many people return home for Thanksgiving Day, so the whole family can stay together.

    There are also some interesting holidays for children. For example, Halloween comes at the end of October. Children often play with pumpkin lanterns (南瓜灯) and put on all kinds of masks (面具).

    Of course, the most important festival is Christmas. After a year of work and study, people can enjoy a long holiday, eat big meals, and visit family and friends.

    Americans and Chinese have quite different views about how to treat friends.

    Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon. They don't feel hurt. If the same two people meet again, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand. Friendships between us develop more slowly but may become lifelong feelings, extending(扩展) deeply into both families.

    There is another difficult point for us to understand. Although Americans treat friends warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don't show their politeness to them if they are asked to spend a lot of time staying with friends. But in China, we are usually generous(慷慨) with our time. We, as hosts, will appear at an airport even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days of from our work to act as guides to our friends. It is opposite in America. Americans can't manage the time to do so much with a visitor outside their daily plans. They will probably expect the visitors to get to the hotels by themselves and expect the visitors to phone them there. Once the visitors arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real.

    For Americans, it is often considered more friends to invite friends to their homes than to restaurants, except for business matters. Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. So accept their hospitality(款待) at home and enjoy your visit in America!