Why the vigil on New Year's Eve?

Shounian, also known as Shounian Fire and Zhao Nian, has a long history. The Han people in China have the habit of observing the New Year's Eve, commonly known as "forbearing the Year". This is the custom of not sleeping on the last night of the old year and staying up late to welcome the new year. Also known as New Year's Eve, the common name is "Endure the Year". Exploring the origin of this custom, there are interesting stories among the people:

In ancient times, there was a fierce monster scattered in the mountains. People call them nian. Its appearance is ferocious, its nature is ferocious, and it specializes in eating birds, animals and insects. It changes its taste every day, from kowtowing insects to living people, which makes people talk about "Nian". Later, people gradually mastered the activity law of Nian, which went to crowded places to taste fresh food every 365 days. The time of its appearance was after dark, when the rooster crowed at dawn, and it returned to the mountains.

After determining the date of the ravages of 2008, people regarded this terrible night as a gateway, and came up with a set of methods to close the New Year's Day: every family prepared dinner in advance, turned off the fire, cleaned the stove, then tied all the cowpeas, sealed the front and back doors of the house, and hid in the house to eat the "New Year's Eve" because this dinner was uncertain. In addition to inviting the whole family to have dinner together to show harmonious reunion, we should also worship our ancestors before eating and pray for their blessing to spend the night safely. After dinner, no one dared to sleep, so they sat together and chatted with courage. Gradually formed the habit of not sleeping on New Year's Eve. The trend of observing the age rose in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and many scholars in the Liang Dynasty had poems about observing the age. "One night for two years, five hours for two years." People light candles or oil lamps and keep vigil all night, which symbolizes driving away all evil diseases and epidemics and looking forward to good luck in the new year. This custom has been handed down from generation to generation.

There is also a saying that there was a monster named Nian in ancient China. It lived on the seabed for many years and climbed ashore every New Year's Eve. People fled to the deep mountains to avoid the harm of Nian beast. Then one year on New Year's Eve, an old man outside the village told people how to drive away Nian beast. It turns out that Nian was most afraid of red, fire and explosion. Since then, every year on New Year's Eve, every family has posted red couplets and set off firecrackers. Every household has a bright candlelight, so it is better to wait for the New Year. In the early morning of the first day, I want to say hello to my relatives and friends. This custom spread more and more widely and became the Spring Festival.