Live Your Myths

Chinese Myths | Chinese New Year

❥ There are other stories that exist around New Year's and New Year's Eve. One in particular is the Nian and New Year's Eve. The Nian usually lives at the bottom of the sea, but it comes up once a year to feast on animals and humans. During this time, the villagers would flee to the mountains. One year, a beggar came to seek shelter, but everyone hurried away, ignoring him. An old woman helped him, and he promised to chase the Nian away. He busied himself with decorating the homes and at midnight, the Nian appeared but stopped when it saw red paper on the doors. Firecrackers resounded when it roared in anger, causing the Nian to tremble in fear. It ran away when it saw the beggar dressed in red, laughing at it.

The villagers returned the next day and were surprised that the homes weren't destroyed. They discovered that the Nian was weak to loud noises and the color red, so this is why families eat dinner in their homes fortified by red decorations, with firecrackers at midnight, on New Year's Eve. people would also wear new red clothing to celebrate.

❥ A tradition that Chinese people love are Spring Festival couplet poems. They are pasted on both sides of the doorframe, protecting the people from the Nian and other monsters. It is said to guard against demons who might wander around the human world at night, looking to cause trouble. They have to return to the Underworld at dawn. Any demons that harmed humans at night would be seized and fed to the tigers. People began to carve the gods' names, who guard the entrance of the underworld under a giant peach tree, into peach wood tablets to safeguard their homes and scare the demons away.