There is a legend about the origin of nian. According to legend, in ancient times, our ancestors were threatened by one of the fiercest beasts. This beast is called Nian. It catches all kinds of animals as food. In winter, when food is scarce in the mountains, it will break into villages and hunt people and animals, and the people will be in a state of panic all day. People have struggled with Nian for many years and found that Nian is afraid of three things, red color, fire and noise. So in winter, people hang red boards on their doors, light a fire at the door, stay up all night and knock at the door. That night, "Nian" broke into the village, saw that every household had a red fire, heard a deafening noise, and was so scared that he ran back to the mountains and never dared to come out again. As the night passed, people congratulated each other and celebrated the victory by decorating, drinking and feasting.
To commemorate this victory, every family will stick red paper couplets on their doors, light lanterns, bang gongs and drums, and set off firecrackers and fireworks at this time of winter. At night, vigil all night; The next day, I congratulated each other early in the morning. This has been passed down from generation to generation, and it has become a "New Year".
New Year's Eve, or "New Year's Eve". This day is a day for people to eat, drink and be merry. Northerners make jiaozi and southerners make rice cakes. The shape of jiaozi is like an "ingot" and the sound of rice cakes is like "rice cakes", which are good signs of good luck. On New Year's Eve, the whole family eats a "reunion dinner" together, which smells like a family reunion in the New Year. When having a reunion dinner, the "fish" on the table can't be moved, because this fish represents "more than one year" and "more than one year", symbolizing "wealth and good luck" in the coming year. It belongs to a decoration and can't be touched.