Can I turn off the lights and sleep on New Year's Eve?

You can't turn off the lights when you sleep on New Year's Eve. You can't turn off the lights until dawn on the first day of the new year. On the whole night of New Year's Eve, the lights are generally not turned off at home, especially in the house where ancestors are supported.

This is because there is a monster named Nian in folklore who goes to the village to make trouble and eat people on the last day of the lunar calendar every year. The villagers were afraid, and then came up with a way: scare it away with firecrackers! So there was the custom of setting off firecrackers on New Year's Eve. Later, people called it "China New Year" to spend the last day of the lunar calendar. Staying up late with the lights on New Year's Eve is like setting off firecrackers to drive away Nian.

Observe the origin of age customs

The custom of observing the old age was first recorded in the local customs of the Western Jin Dynasty: on New Year's Eve in Sichuan, all parties gave gifts to each other, which was called "giving the old age"; Wine and food are invited, which is called "not old"; Young and old gather to drink and wish to sing, which is called "age division"; Everyone stays up all night, waiting for the dawn. This is called "Shousui".

The Chronicle of the Middle Qin Dynasty at the Age of Years contains: "There were no words in the three generations of ancient books until Du Fu's poem" Keeping the Year at Home "in the Tang Dynasty, and it was suspected that" keeping the Year at Axian's house, the pepper plate has sung flowers "began in the Tang Dynasty."

Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty, wrote the poem "Shousui": "Cold words and winter snow, warm with spring breeze". Bai Juyi's poem "Stay in the Year" says: "Stay in the Year without wine, and homesickness is full of tears." Meng Haoran has a poem, "Continue to draw candles, and then have a long banquet in the old days".