Chinese New Year

Post date: Jan 30, 2019 6:51:16 PM

Giant Monster Takes Over Ancient China, The Story of Chinese New Year

                                                                                                      By Ivy Hu

  Chinese New Year is coming up! Chinese New Year this year is on February 5.

On that day, many Chinese people will come together with families and friends to celebrate the start of a new lunar year.

The story of Chinese New Year

  The story of Chinese New Year goes like this. Long ago in the mountains, there lived a great monster named Nian. Every year, on the first day of the year, the monster  would wake up and go to a nearby village. He would eat all the grain and animals. And if there were any unfortunate children stuck outside, they would disappear.

  The villagers lived in fear of this monster and boarded up their houses every year on this night to protect their families. One year, right before the monster was to come, an old man visited the village. He turned to the villagers and asked, "Why are you so scared of this monster? There are many of you and only one of him. Surely, he can not swallow all of you."

  But the villagers remained skeptical and locked themselves up anyway. That night, Nian did not come. The old man had fought him of until dawn and the creature went back to its cave hungry. This went on for several nights until the old man said, "I cannot protect you forever."

  He turned out to be a god and had to return to his duties elsewhere. The villagers were terrified that once the old man left, they would once again see Nian return.

  So the old man informed them, "The  beast is easily scared. He does not like red and he is scared of strange creatures and loud noises. So tonight, spread red across the village. Hang red signs on every door. Make loud noises with drums, music, and fireworks. And to protect your children, give them face masks and lanterns.

  The villagers did as the old man had told them and Nian never returned again.

  In Chinese, the term for New Years is Guo Nian. Literally translated it means to "pass over Nian" or "overcome Nian". That is exactly what the villagers did.

It has become a tradition that part of New Years celebration is to hang lots of red decoration in your house. Streets are filled with music, loud drums, and fireworks all day long. And special paper lanterns are made in a variety of shapes and sizes, paraded through the streets to scare off any demons that might come.

   And this is the story of how Chinese New Year came to be.

 

Edited from the original text “ The Story of Chinese New Year (年的传说)” from www.chinesenewyearfestival.org                           ,                    

 

The Traditions of Chinese New Year

 There are many traditions of Chinese New Year. One such tradition is a family reunion dinner. People gather with their families on New Year’s Eve and cook a big family dinner with many dishes such as steamed fish and herbal soup. Another tradition of Chinese New Year is sweeping and doing a big clean out before Chinese New Year. This is to sweep out the bad luck of the old year and to welcome the good luck of the new year. People also hang red in their house and wear red around the weeks of Chinese New Year. Another tradition of Chinese New Year is lion dancing. “ We do lion dancing as a tradition. The lions are to scare off nian. The drums and cymbals are to scare off nian. Everything is to scare off nian” says Amy Li, eighth grade lion dancer. Dragon dancing is also a tradition, and it has the same purpose as lion dancing. One more common tradition of Chinese New Year is red envelopes. Family members put money in small red envelopes and pass them out to each other on the day of new year to wish them luck for the coming year. Traditionally, you open the envelopes on the fifthteenth day of the new year. If you open the envelopes right away, it is considered rude and all the luck inside will disappear. On the night of new year, people light fireworks and firecrackers to scare away nian, according to the story.