One of the most important festivals for Chinese communities, Chinese New Year encompasses a vibrant and diverse range of practices and traditions. With traditions, it comes along with a few myths of their own. Want to sound smart and full of wisdom this Lunar New Year? Here are three popular and interesting Chinese New Year myths you can share with your family and friends.
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Nian Shou
According to Chinese myth, ‘Nian’ (also known as “Year” in Chinese) is a monster with traits of a lion, unicorn, and ox that resided in the mountains. The beast would come down at the end of the year to ruin the fields, crops, and animals, torment people, and even killed. Afterwards, the locals realized that loud noises, bright lights, and the colour red terrified ‘Nian’.
To keep the Nian from wreaking devastation on the land, the people built a terrifying duplicate of the monster out of bamboo, paper, and cloths, with two courageous men inside to animate it. Then, they awaited the monster on New Year’s Eve.
When the moment came, they unleashed their four-legged beast, accompanied by frenzied drumming, cymbals, and gongs, as well as a barrage of firecrackers to scare off ‘Nian’. This in turn led to the beginning of the lion dance troupes that we usually see perform during the festive season sans the firecrackers of course.
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Red Packets
During the Chinese New Year, children are always happy to be given red envelopes by married or older people but do you know how the tradition started? Ya Sui Qian (also known as “suppressing sui”) is another name for the crimson envelope.
According to folklore, on New Year’s Eve, in addition to the monster ‘Nian,’ a demon named ‘Sui’ appeared to terrorize children while they were sleeping. It was reported that children who were touched by the demon had severe fevers and even went mentally ill. Parents would burn candles and remain up all night to pray for their children’s safety.
Touched by their actions, the Gods granted eight guards disguised as coins which were threaded together by the people and placed below the children’s pillows. Sui was warded off by these protective symbols and eventually stopped scaring children altogether.
Giving red packets became a technique of keeping kids safe and bringing good luck from then on. As generations passed, coins were replaced with notes and the thread was eventually replaced with a red and bright envelope.
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Spring Festive Wine’s Origins
There are some drinks specific to China’s Chinese New Year although it may not be commonly practiced in Singapore. One of them is Tusu Wine (known as 屠蘇酒). A long time ago, there was a plague going through the villages of China that took many lives.
A man is said to have created a mixture of herbs, leaves, grains and placed them in individual bags. He gave one to each of his neighbors and instructed them to soak the mixture in water and drink it on New Year’s Day. The villagers later discovered that the drink was able to save them from the life-threatening plague.
What’s significant about Tusu Wine is the drinking order. According to Chinese customs, the eldest of the family must give their blessings and drink first. But with tusu wine, it’s the opposite. Children are allowed to go first instead to protect them from bad luck.
These are just some myths that I know about. Most of them seems to be in the form of warding off demons or plagues though. Do you know of these Chinese myths? Share them with your family and friends as a conversation starter or when you have run out of topics to catch up on!
This article was brought to you by Han. I pretend to be broke in order to stay wealthy, yet I’m not wealthy.
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