Spring Festival(英文版春节介绍)

Spring Festival

1. Tale of Nian

We call the Spring Festival Nian, but did you know that Nian was once the name of a terrible, scary monster? A long time ago, the monster Nian lived in the mountains. It looked like an ugly dragon, and got angry easily.

Nian ate animals. But in winter, it could not find food. So it came to many villages and ate people. People were so afraid of Nian that they locked their doors before evening came during the winter.

One day, an old man came to a village. He told people there that Nian was afraid of three things—red color, fire and noise. He told people to play drums and gongs (铜锣), make big fires and set off fireworks (放鞭炮) to make Nian go away.

On a moonless, cold night, Nian went to the village again. As soon as it opened its big mouth, people made loud noises and made fires. Nian was really afraid and ran away. Wher-ever it went, there was noise and fire. When Nian was tired and could not run anymore, people killed the monster.

After that, on the coldest day of winter, people beat drums and gongs, and set off fire­works to celebrate the death of the monster of Nian. They put up red lanterns (灯笼) and have a big dinner without sleeping during the night, and greet each other happily in the next morning.

2. Brief Introduction of Spring Festival

The Spring Festival is the most important festival for the Chinese people and is when all family members get together, just like Christmas in the West. All people living away from home go back, becoming the busiest time for transportation systems of about half a month from the Spring Festival. Airports, railway stations and long-distance bus stations are crowded with home returnees.

The Spring Festival falls on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month. Strictly speaking, the Spring Festival starts every year in the early days of the 12th lunar month and will last till the mid 1st lunar month of the next year. Of them, the most important days are Spring Festival Eve and the first three days. The Chinese government now stipulates people have seven days off for the Chinese Lunar New Year.

3. Preliminary Customs

Many customs accompany the Spring Festival. Some are still followed today, but others have weakened.

On the 8th day of the 12th lunar month, many families make laba porridge, a delicious kind of porridge made with rice，glutinous rice（糯米）, millet（小米）, coix seed（薏仁）, jujube berries（枣泥）, lotus seeds(莲子), beans, longan（桂圆） and gingko（白果）.

The 23rd day of the 12th lunar month is called Preliminary Eve. At this time, people offer sacrifice to the kitchen god. Now however, most families make delicious food to enjoy themselves.

After the Preliminary Eve, people begin preparing for the coming New Year. This is called "Seeing the New Year in".

Store owners are busy then as everybody goes out to purchase necessities for the

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