Today is the Lunar New Year eve. Chinese everywhere will be making their way home for reunion dinners with their family, and then keeping a vigil for the arrival of the new year with homes brightly lit. Children will look forward to receiving blessing from their elders in the form of red packet [红包 hong2 bao4] stuffed with money. It’s an event of joy and anticipation for all.

But it had not always been like this. In fact, according to ancient Chinese folklore, this used to be a time of fear and misery, a time to leave home en mass for the refuge of the jungle. How so ? The Chinese term 过年 [guo4 nian2] is taken to mean ‘transition to a new year’ in modern time, but [年] dose not mean year in an earlier period (before the Zhpu dynasty 周朝 in 1020 BC), when year is represented by the characters 岁 (sui4) and 载 (zai3, one revolution of the heavenly bodies). Thus the passage of time is 过岁月 (literally to ferry across years and months). So a more accurate translation for 过年 is ‘make it through Nian’. In fact in Chinese literature there are commonly found expressions such as 熬年 (ao2 nian2, endure or suffer through Nian) and 过年关 (guo4 nian2 guan1, to survive the Nian ordeal) to describe the event.

So what is the Nian that our ancients so dreaded ?nian1 Nian [年兽 nian2 sou4] is a beast of ill fortune in Chinese mythology. It lived in remote seclusion deep undersea (or in dense forest, by some account). It was an ugly, horned beast of extreme ferocity.  In its presence, plants withered and crops failed. As a carnivore, it devoured any living fish, bird and animal, a different kind of creature each day. Thus on the last day of the year, it would invade human habitat to feast on human flesh exclusively. Therefore new year’s eve was not a day to look forward to, and every villager and town dweller would pack up and head for the mountain and jungle to  seek refuge from this visitation by Nian, which lasted from sundown to dawn. Of course the supposed refuge posed danger of its own, such as tigers and bears. It’s a measure of the fear of Nian that people would willingly chance an encounter with these other predators just to get away from Nian.

As the years passed, some people got to understand the habits and behaviour of Nian better, and devised a set of routines and practices to help them survive the ordeal [熬年关]. Thus on new year’s eve :

  1. Prepare a sumptuous dinner as survival is not assured;
  2. Snuff out all embers and clean out the stove when done cooking the reunion dinner;
  3. Lock up all livestock indoors;
  4. Seal all entrances when everyone’s home;
  5. Before dinner, pray to the ancestors for protection and safe passage of the night’;
  6. In some regions, dinner is eaten slowly, dragging till past midnight;
  7. After dinner, stay up and chit-chat to keep a vigil [守岁 shou3 sui4] through the night;

nian2 When Nian entered the community after sundown, it found the streets deserted and all dwellings locked down with heaps of sesame sticks [芝麻软糖 zhi1 ma2 ruan3 tang2] (a traditional Chinese confectionery) piled up in front. Unable to find prey, it would gnaw the sweets and return to its lair at sunrise. The people then throw open their main door and rush into the streets to greet and congratulate each other for making it through another year unscathed. Parents give a single coin to each child to mark the safe passage (压岁 ya1 sui4, literally ‘locking down the age’). Each child would string up these coins on bedside (or under pillow) as a record of his age, kind of like tree rings. This tradition also lead to the common practice of over-stating a child’s age. For example an infant born in the closing month of the year will be given a coin by new year and reported as one year old.

With the widespread adoption of these practices, many years passed without any attack. The people began to slacken in their vigilance. So one year in the south a whole village was practicality wiped out in an attack. The only survivors were a newly wed couple dressed in bright red wedding gears huddling in their bedroom with red curtains and a group of children playing around a bonfire of dried bamboo trunk. Speculation was that Nian abhorred the colour red or was tricked into believing the bedroom had been bloodied (implying there was no one left alive). It was also frighten off by the brightness and loud popping of burning bamboo. Thus started the practice of dressing in red, hanging red lanterns and sticking red paper on the front door. With the communities brightly lit and lots of noise from gongs, drums and fire crackers, the was no more reports of attack by Nian.

Today, many of our custom and practices during New Year can be traced back to these measures. For example, giving of red packet [红包] has its root in locking down the age [压岁]. Hanging of auspicious couplets [对联 dui4 lian2] originate from sticking red paper on doors. And the Chinese term for fire crackers [爆竹 bao4 ju4] literally mean exploding bamboo.