In ancient times, there were different customs in the north and the south. In ancient times, the custom of keeping the old age in the north was mainly "staying up until the New Year's Eve". For example, Zhou Chu of the Jin Dynasty wrote "Records of the Local Customs", which said: On New Year's Eve, everyone gave gifts to each other, which was called "giving the old age"; Young and old get together and wish a complete song, which is called "dividing the age"; Sleeping all the year round, waiting for dawn, is called "keeping the age."

"Children can't sleep, and they are happy at night" comes from the poem Shou Sui written by Su Shi, a great writer in the Song Dynasty. The meaning of these two poems is that children stay up, try to stay awake, and laugh and make noise when they are old. Keeping old is the custom of staying up late to welcome the new year on the last night of the old year.