Chinese New Year is a very old celebration, a time for repaying debts, enjoying feasts, giving “red envelopes” of lucky money to friends and relatives, and remembering ancestors.
Yan Yat - The seventh day of the Chinese New Year is called Yan Yat, “Everybody’s Birthday.”
There are many delightful ancient stories and superstitions surrounding this holiday. A wonderful school site in Holland shares some funny ones: Chinese New Year superstitions.
Here’s are a couple of my favorites! Once upon a time ….
Long ago, in Han times, there was a monster whose name was “Nian”. This monster came once each year to a little village and scared everyone! One day, just by luck, the villagers discovered that “Nian” had a couple fears of his own. He was afraid of the color red and even more afraid of scary loud noises! The villagers prepared. When “Nian” appeared, everyone in the village ran for the bright red banners and very loud noise makers they had made. They waved their banners and rattled their noise makers. This scared “Nian” so much that “Nian” ran away and was never heard from again!
|
Which explains why people in China believe the color red signifies joy and luck, and why noise makers are rattled on Chinese New Year. At midnight, firecrackers, paper dragons, noise makers, the waving of red ribbons and banners all help to drive away any lingering evil spirits from the old year. (In case “Nian” is still lurking about somewhere!)
Superstitions
On Chinese New Year Eve, parents encourage children to stay awake as long as possible, because legend says that the longer children stay awake the longer their parents will live.
The Kitchen God was an important ancient deity. Once each year, right before the new year, this god’s job was to make an annual report about the behavior of the household to his boss, the “Jade Emperor”.
Today, as part of the Chinese New Year celebration, sweets are often exchanged so that the kitchen god’s report will be sweet and flattering. (Nobody believes in the kitchen god anymore, but almost everyone likes the treats!)
(Source: ancienthistory.mrdonn.org)
