Long ago, the world was not a safe place, monsters dominated the world. There was one horrifying monster that came out on the same day each year to eat people. This monster was named nien, and the people marked the end of the year by his visits to the human civilization. That is where the Chinese word for year came from.
This monster was the most feared by the people because everytime it came out, whole villages would be destroyed at that time. So , everytime the monster came, people would huddle together in their homes and stay up all night, waiting not to be eaten. This happened for many many years until a wise man thought up a plan to scare the monster away.
This man proposed that the people should light bamboo and wear red. The bamboo would crack and make a lot of noise, possibly scaring the monster away, and wearing red would also scare the monster away. Without eating any people.
Everytime when the new year is about to come, the villagers would wear red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also use fire crackers to frighten away the nien
Credits : Wikipedia and library.thinkquest.org
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Thanks for sharing! Planning to celebrate the lunar new year? We have 7 Virtual lunar new year ideas you can use to celebrate it together with office colleagues or work from home teams.
ReplyDelete