春节的来历 英语

春节的来历 英语

the origin of chinese new year

中国春节的来历

the chinese new year is now popularly known as the spring

festival because it starts from the begining of spring (the first of the twenty-four terms in coodination with the changes of nature). its origin is too old to be traced. several explanations are hanging around. all agree, however, that the word nian, which in modern chinese solely means

one legend goes that the beast nian had a very big mouth that would swallow a great many people with one bite. people were very scared. one day, an old man came to their rescue, offering to subdue nian. to nian he said,

after that, the old man disappeared riding the beast nian. he turned out to be an immortal god. now that nian is gone and other beasts of prey are also scared into forests, people begin to enjoy their peaceful life. before the old man left, he had told people to put up red paper decorations on their windows and doors at each

year's end to scare away nian in case it sneaked back again, because red is the color the beast feared the most.

from then on, the tradition of observing the conquest of nian is carried on from generation to generation. the term