2. There is a folk saying: In ancient times, there was a fierce monster named Nian who went door to door on the 30th of the twelfth lunar month, foraging for human flesh and killing people without blinking an eye. One year, Nian came to a village on the night of the twelfth lunar month, and it happened that two cowboys were fighting for a bullwhip. Nian suddenly heard the sound of a whip 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 was 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.
Setting off firecrackers originated from the act of exorcising ghosts, but today people set off firecrackers to celebrate in the New Year, because ghosts are driven away and bad luck is driven away.