The beast called Nian, and why your neighbours are shouting
Your first Spring Festival in China is loud. Red paper goes up on every door, fireworks start before dinner and do not really stop, and the family you are staying with refuses to go to bed. There is a reason for all three, and it is a monster.
The beast from the sea
At the bottom of the sea lived a beast called Nian: body like a bull but taller than a house, a mane like tangled seaweed, one curved horn sharp enough to split a boulder. He slept through the seasons and bothered nobody.
But on the last night of every year — when the old year was dying and the new one had not yet drawn breath — he rose out of the waves and walked inland toward the village lights. He came to Peach Blossom Village every time, and he ate pigs, oxen and, if those did not satisfy him, people.
So the villagers stopped celebrating the end of the year and started packing instead. Rice, clothes, babies tied on with cloth slings, and up into the mountains before dark.
The old beggar who stayed
One year an old traveller with silver hair came through as everyone was leaving. Only Granny Li let him in and fed him. In return he asked to stay one night, and promised to drive Nian away for good.
He pasted red paper over her door, set candles in every window until the little house glowed, and stacked fresh-cut green bamboo in the courtyard. Red frightens him, he said. Fire frightens him. Noise most of all — Nian has lived a thousand years in the dark and deep and has never learned to bear a loud, sudden thing.
When the beast's shadow fell over the village, the old man threw the bamboo on the fire, and the bamboo screamed. Nian turned and ran for the sea. In the morning the villagers came down to find their roofs standing and their rice untouched, and an old woman on her doorstep laughing and weeping at the same time.
Who is in it
- Nian 年 (Nián) — the beast from the bottom of the sea who attacks the village on the last night of the year.
- Granny Li, or Popo 李婆婆 (Lǐ Pópo) — the one villager who lets the stranger in.
- The old beggar 老乞丐 (lǎo qǐgài) — the silver-haired traveller who knows what Nian fears.
- The villagers 村民 (cūnmín) — the people of Peach Blossom Village, who flee to the mountains every year.
Why this matters on New Year's Eve
Almost every visible Spring Festival (春节) custom traces back to those three weaknesses. Red couplets (春联) and red paper on the doors. Red clothes, especially for anyone whose zodiac year it is. Firecrackers — green bamboo thrown on a fire was the original version, and the Chinese word for firecracker still carries that bamboo in it. And staying up (守岁), families sitting together through the whole night, waiting out the dark.
Even the greeting carries it. 过年 (guònián) means to celebrate the new year, and read literally it means to get past Nian. When someone asks you 你过年回家吗 — are you going home for new year — that is the phrase you are hearing.
Listen to it
Laonei narrates this legend in 3 chapters, and the last one is really an explanation of the customs you are about to be surrounded by. Play it on the train home for the holiday and you will understand roughly half of what the family does next. Listen at liuxuesheng.help/talk.
FAQ
Why do Chinese people hang red things at New Year?
Because Nian is afraid of the colour red. In the story an old traveller pastes red paper over a door and covers the windows in red cloth, and the beast will not come near. Today that survives as red couplets beside doorways, red paper cuttings, red lanterns, red envelopes of money and red clothes worn through the holiday.
What does guo nian actually mean?
过年 (guònián) is the ordinary phrase for celebrating Chinese New Year, and it is what people say when they talk about going home for the holiday. Read character by character it means to pass or get past 年 — the year, and also the beast. The story and the everyday word are the same two syllables.
Why are there so many fireworks?
Noise is what frightens Nian most. The original version in the story is green bamboo thrown onto a fire, which cracks and bursts loudly as the sap heats. Firecrackers replaced the bamboo, and the volume is the point rather than the spectacle — which is worth remembering at 6am on the first morning of the holiday.