The Origin of the Spring Festival

As soon as the Spring Festival comes, everyone will set off firecrackers to celebrate the New Year. As we all know, the Spring Festival is the most important traditional festival in China, symbolizing the beginning of a new year. There are many legends about the Spring Festival among the people. Although these legends can't prove their authenticity, they still add a mythical color to the Spring Festival. So what are the legends and stories of the Spring Festival?

Legend of the Spring Festival 1: Drive away Nian beast

Once upon a time, there was a monster named Nian. It has horns on its head, which is very powerful. Nian beast usually hides at the bottom of the sea, and the Spring Festival is coming soon. Nian beast will climb out of the sea and eat cows, sheep, chickens, pigs and even people.

On one occasion, the people knew that Nian beast was coming, and they all took animals into the mountains to escape. At this moment, a white-bearded grandfather came. An old woman advised Grandpa White Beard to hide quickly. Grandpa with white beard said, I live here, and I'm not afraid of Nian beast. Only Nian beast is afraid of me.

It turns out that Nian beast is most afraid of red, noise and fire.

From then on, everyone knew a good way to dare to walk the Nian beast. As the Spring Festival approaches, people will put up red couplets at the door, put up red blessings, put up red window grilles on the windows, set off firecrackers and set off fireworks.

Legend of the Spring Festival 2: Sticking Spring Festival couplets and door gods

In ancient myths and legends of China, there is a ghost world, in which there is a mountain, a big peach tree covering three thousand miles, and a golden rooster at the top of the tree. Whenever the golden rooster crows in the morning, the ghost who travels at night will rush back to the ghost domain. The Gate of Ghost Domain is located in the northeast of Peach Tree District. There are two gods standing by the door, named Shen Tu and Lei Yu. If the ghost does something unnatural at night, Shen Tu and Lei Yu will immediately find it, catch it, tie it up with a rope made of Miscanthus and give it to the tiger. So all the ghosts in the world are afraid of Shen Tu and Lei Yu. So people carved them into peach trees and put them at their doorsteps to ward off evil spirits and prevent harm. Later, people simply carved the names of Shen Tu and Lei Yu on the mahogany board, thinking that this could also eliminate disasters. This kind of red board was later called "peach symbol", and later formed the traditional habit of sticking doors during the Spring Festival.