According to the China lunar calendar, the first day of the first month is called Yuanri, Chen Yuan, Jacky, Yuanshuo and New Year's Day. Commonly known as the first day of the first month. It was changed to Gregorian calendar in the Republic of China. The first day of the Gregorian calendar is called New Year's Day, and the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar is called Spring Festival.
In the legend of the "Nian" monster, there are five kinds of sayings that are widely circulated. Let's take a look:
One of the legends of 2008: Nian Beast.
Legend has it that in ancient China, there was a monster called Nian, with a long, pointed head and extremely fierce. Nian beast has lived under the sea for many years. Every New Year's Eve, it crawls ashore to devour livestock and kill people. Therefore, on New Year's Eve, people help the old and take care of the young and flee to the mountains to avoid the harm of Nian beast. It is said that Nian beast has a big head and a small body, and it is more than ten feet long. Its eyes are like two bells, coming and going like the wind. When it is called, it sounds "year after year", hence the name Nian Beast.
A fierce monster called Nian goes from one house to another every year1February 30th, foraging for human flesh and killing creatures. On the night of the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month, Nian came to a village. It happened that two cowboys were fighting for a whip. Nian suddenly heard the sound of whipping in mid-air and ran away in fear. It fled to another village and saw a bright red dress drying in front of the door. It didn't know what it was, so it turned around and ran away. Later, he came to a village, looked into the door of a family, and saw that the lights were brightly lit and dizzy, so he had to slip away again, with his tail between his legs. From this, people realized that Nian has the weakness of being afraid of noise, red and light, so they thought of many ways to resist it and gradually evolved into the custom of celebrating the New Year today.
Nian beast should have evolved from wild animals. Because from the time point of view, the "New Year" is the end of winter and the beginning of spring, and the snow closes the mountain and closes the road. Humans have learned to preserve food, resist the cold and concentrate on life, but wild animals can only risk going down the mountain to eat people. After human development, there are years, months and years, but the environment rarely changes, and wild animals still go down the mountain to eat people in late winter and early spring. With the passing from generation to generation and the processing of "literati" at that time, "Nian Beast" appeared.
Legend 2 of "Nian": Keeping the Old and Enduring the New
There is also a legend that "keep the old and be patient with the new". This is also a legend that people often hear. On New Year's Eve, in Archaean, there was a fierce monster scattered in the mountains, which people called Nian. Its appearance is ferocious, its nature is ferocious, and it specializes in eating birds, animals and insects. It changes its taste every day, from kowtowing insects to living people, which makes people talk about "Nian". Later, people gradually mastered the activity law of "Nian", that is, every 365 days, people go to places where people live in concentrated communities to taste fresh food. The haunting time is after dark, and when the rooster crows at dawn, they return to the mountains.
After determining the date of the ravages of 2008, people regarded this terrible night as a gateway, and came up with a set of methods to close the New Year's Day: every family prepared dinner in advance, turned off the fire, cleaned the stove, then tied all the cowpeas, sealed the front and back doors of the house, and hid in the house to eat the "New Year's Eve" because this dinner was uncertain. In addition to inviting the whole family to have dinner together to show harmonious reunion, we should also worship our ancestors before eating and pray for their blessing to spend the night safely. After dinner, no one dared to sleep, so they sat together and chatted with courage. Gradually formed the habit of not sleeping on New Year's Eve.
Legend of "nian" monster 3: "Xi" monster
Legend has it that in ancient times, there was an evil beast with four corners and four feet-Xi. When the mountain was closed by heavy snow, Xi gathered around to hurt neighbors and look for food. At the end of the twelfth lunar month, people packed their bags to help the elderly and take care of the young, and went to the nearby bamboo forest to avoid Xi.
This year, when the villagers were preparing to take refuge, a kind mother-in-law rescued the starving child by the roadside and took it to the bamboo forest to escape the dusk. Mother-in-law told the child that she chased here at night and left in a hurry when she saw someone chopping bamboo. As soon as the child thinks about it, he tells everyone that he has a way to get rid of the evening and let everyone cut more bamboo knots with him. When I got home, every door was covered with red cloth.
When Xi attacked again, the children came forward to attract Xi's attention and asked the villagers to throw the broken bamboo joints into the fire, but everyone froze with fear. At this moment, "Xi" picked up the child with his horn and threw it to the ground. The villagers responded to the sound of children falling to the ground and threw bamboo joints into the fire. Because it was cut down not long ago, the wet bamboo joints burst in succession when they met the prosperous fire, and they kept ringing! "Xi" turned and ran away after hearing the sound, and did not destroy anything in the village again.
Scared away at night, the residents' home was saved because of the red bar hanging in front of the door, but the clever child who saved the village died. This day is the first day of the first month. This clever boy, his name is Nian.
Because "Xi" is not dead, everyone is waiting to break the bamboo festival on the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month every year, hoping to get rid of "Xi" as soon as possible. However, year after year, no one saw "Xi" again. Only firecrackers and red cloth strips were hung in front of the door to prevent the arrival of "Xi", but it left us with this legend and the custom of Chinese New Year.
The fourth legend of strange "year": "year" is divided into "Xi"
Legend has it that a long time ago, there was a monster named Xi. Every year, Xi always comes out to eat people. Even the "Nine-Day Chef ordered Taiyi Yuan Di to bless the performance of a good Buddha" couldn't help it. Who is the long name of this word? This one was sealed by the Jade Emperor, and it is the "Kitchen God" offered by every household.
This monster named "Xi" came out at the end of the year to make trouble and harm the people, so the supervisor sent by heaven, the head of our family, returned to heaven, and heaven sent another beast named "Nian". This god beast named Nian is miraculous. He waved a HongLing and put a bamboo pole into the fire, making it crackle and scaring away the nocturnal animals. Finally destroyed the evening beast!
This day happens to be December of the lunar calendar, not the last day of the twelfth lunar month. In order to thank and commemorate Nian beast for getting rid of the beast at night on this day, people call the last day of the twelfth lunar month "New Year's Eve" and the first day of the new year "Spring Festival". After the evening beast was destroyed, the people hoped that every household would have red silk and scratching bamboo poles in the hands of Nian beast, so the red silk and scratching bamboo poles burned in the fire gradually evolved into red couplets and firecrackers that every household had during the New Year. Play a deterrent role, ward off evil spirits!
The fifth legend of Nian monster: "air billow shot at night.
A long time ago, there was a monster named Xi. It is harmful to people and especially likes to eat beautiful girls. People hate it, but there is nothing they can do. There is a hunter named Qi Lang. He is very strong and can shoot arrows. He also has a very powerful hunting dog. Air billow saw that people were suffering from "Xi" and wanted to get rid of it. He took the hounds everywhere looking for "Xi", but he couldn't find it.
It turns out that "Xi" only comes out to harm people on the night of the twelfth lunar month, but it doesn't appear at ordinary times, and no one knows where it lives. Air billow searched for "Xi" for a year, and it was the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month. He came to a town and saw people happily preparing for the Spring Festival. He thought to himself, "This town is big and there are many girls. Maybe I will come here tomorrow, so I will wait for it here. " It told the people in the town: "Xi is most afraid of noise." Do not sleep at night. Find something that knocks loudly and put it by your side. Once you find Xi, knock hard. Then I will get rid of Xi. "
In the evening, "Xi" did come, and it was found as soon as it broke into a house. The family immediately knocked on pots and pans, and when the family knocked, the whole town followed suit. Evening is scared to run around, and the result is seen by Qilang. The hounds bit Xi's hind legs, so air billow took the opportunity to draw a bow and shoot him, and finally shot Xi to death. Since then, people have called the 30th of the twelfth lunar month "New Year's Eve". On this night, every household should set off firecrackers to drive away the ominous and welcome happiness and auspiciousness.
Of course, these are just legends, but from these orderly and rule-based legends, it can be reflected from the side that in ancient farming society, people's fear of nature is highly abstract, but it also tells us that they are not powerless in the face of fear, and the myths and legends of "punishing evil and promoting good" always pray for good weather and let people live and work in peace and contentment!