History and Legends of the Chinese New Year

The Chinese Lunar New Year is the longest chronological record in history, dating from 2600 B.C. when the Emperor Huang Ti introduced the first cycle of the zodiac. Like the Western calendar, the Chinese lunar calendar is a yearly one. However, this calendar is based on the movements of the moon, with each month beginning a new moon. Because of this cyclical dating, the beginning of the year can fall anywhere between late January and the middle of February. (This year the New Year is January 24th.) A complete cycle takes 60 years and is made up of five cycles of 12 years each.

The Chinese New Year was originally known as the Spring Festival. Today, many fascinating legends are associated with the origins of the Chinese New Year. Hope you enjoy the following two legends.

Buddha and the Twelve Animals

Chinese legend states that thousands of years ago, Buddha summoned all the animals in the kingdom. Only twelve animals answered his call. As a reward, Buddha endowed each animal with a year of its own in the order of arrival. From then on, each year of the Chinese calendar bore the characteristics of the animal of that name.

From our article on the Year of the Snake, judge for yourself if the characteristics of each animal describe you or your friends.

The Monster Nian

The word Nian, the modern Chinese word for "year," was originally the name of a monster that preyed on people at night before the beginning of a new year. The beast Nian was said to have a large mouth capable of swallowing many people with one bite. The people were afraid and could not find a way to rid themselves of this dreadful beast. One day an old man appeared, offering to subdue Nian. To Nian he said, "I hear that you are very capable, but can you swallow the other beasts of prey on earth instead of the people who are by no means worthy opponents to you?"

So Nian proceeded to swallow as many of the beasts of prey on earth as possible, and soon after the old man, later discovered to be an immortal god, vanished riding the beast Nian. With Nian and the remaining beasts of prey scared into the forest, people began to enjoy life again. However, before leaving the people, the old man had told the people to place red paper decorations on their windows and doors at each year's end to scare Nian away should he ever run loose again, because red is the color the beast feared the most.

From then on, the tradition of observing the conquest of Nian was carried on from generation to generation. The term Guo Nian, which once translated to Survive the Nian today, today means to Celebrate the (New) Year as the word Guo in Chinese means both pass-over and observe. The custom of putting up red paper and lighting fire-crackers to scare away Nian in the case of his return is still around today, though the people have lomg forgotten the origins behind this tradition.

1998 – Year of the Tiger
1999 – Year of the Rabbit
2000 – Year of the Dragon