海外文化:英美民俗-算命

【英文原文】

摘要：算命是占卜的一種形式，在歐洲歷史上曾十分流行。古希臘羅馬人就相信神諭能通過先知之口傳達，所以凡遇大事，總要征求神諭，以預知未來。

Fortunetelling is the practice of trying to guess or predict what will happen in the future. Persons who claim to foretell the future are called fortunetellers.

Fortunetelling has been especially popular during certain periods of history. For example, the ancient Greeks and Romans believed the gods spoke to them through prophets called oracles. Many people went to oracles for advice about the future. During the Renaissance, the period from about 1300 to about 1600, a type of fortunetelling called astrology became extremely popular in Europe. Some form of fortunetelling remain popular today as ways of amusement, but many believe in them sincerely. Some methods of telling fortunes are complicated, and fortunetellers often say they are scientific. But scientists consider them to be pseudosciences.

There are four popular ways to tell fortunes. Some fortunetellers tell what one’s future will be by studying the lines, markings, shape, and the size of the person’s hand. This is called palmistry. Fortunetelling by cards is also popular. The person whose fortune is being told may select cards from a deck of playing cards that is lying face down on the table. The cards have meanings for the fortuneteller. The fortuneteller lays down the cards in a pattern on a table and tells the fortune by the order in which the cards appear. One of the most famous methods involves gazing into a crystal ball. A crystal ball is actually a glass ball, in which the fortuneteller is supposed to be able to see a picture of some future event. Another way to tell fortunes is astrology. This way is based on the belief that positions and movements of the sun, the moon, planets, and stars are related to people’s lives.