The Legend of Spring Festival in Chongqing

Spring Festival is a traditional festival in China, also known as New Year's Eve.

According to legend, there was a monster named Nian in ancient China, with long tentacles and a ferocious face. Nian lived on the seabed for many years, and climbed ashore every New Year's Eve, eating livestock and hurting people's lives. Therefore, every New Year's Eve, people in the village fled to the deep mountains to avoid the harm of the "Nian" beast. On New Year's Eve this year, people in Taohua Village were taking refuge in the mountains when an old beggar came from outside the village. He was leaning on crutches, carrying a bag on his arm, with elegant silver whiskers and staring at Matthew. Some villagers sealed windows and locked doors, some packed their bags, some herded cattle and drove sheep, and people shouted boo everywhere, which was a scene of panic. At this time, who still has the mind to take care of this begging old man? Only an old woman in the village east gave the old man some food and suggested that he go up the mountain quickly to avoid the "Nian" beast. The old man smiled and said, "If my mother-in-law lets me stay at home for one night, I will definitely drive the Nian beast away. The old woman looked at him carefully in surprise and found that he was handsome, energetic and different. But she continued to persuade and begged the old man to laugh without saying a word. My mother-in-law had no choice but to leave home and take refuge in the mountains. In the middle of the night, Nian beast broke into the village. " I found that the atmosphere in the village was different from that in previous years: the old woman's house at the east end of the village had red paper on the door and the house was brightly lit by candlelight. In 2000, "the beast trembled all over and made strange noises." Years "stared at her mother-in-law's house for a while, and then screamed and rushed over. As we approached the door, there was a sudden explosion in the yard. Nian trembled and dared not go any further. It turns out that Nian was most afraid of red, fire and explosion. "At this moment, the door of her mother-in-law's house was wide open, and an old man in a red robe was laughing in the yard. Nianbo was frightened to disgrace and fled in confusion. The next day was the first day of the first month, and the people who came back from refuge were very surprised to see that the village was safe and sound. At this time, the old woman suddenly realized and quickly told the villagers the promise of begging for the elderly. The villagers flocked to the old woman's house together, only to see red paper on her mother-in-law's door, a pile of unburned bamboo still exploding in the yard, and several red candles still glowing in the house ... In order to celebrate the auspicious arrival, the ecstatic villagers put on new clothes and hats one after another and went to relatives and friends' houses to congratulate and say hello. The story soon spread in the surrounding villages, and people knew the way to drive away the "Nian" beast. 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 has spread more and more widely, and has become the most solemn traditional festival among the people in China. This is one of the most popular explanations about the origin of the Spring Festival. This story alone describes four Spring Festival customs in succession: posting red couplets, setting off firecrackers, waiting for the Spring Festival, and visiting relatives and friends early in the morning to say hello. In addition, there are many customs, such as: sweeping dust, visiting temple fairs, watching community fires, worshiping door gods, offering sacrifices to kitchen gods, and giving lucky money to the younger generation by elders ... These customs have lasted for thousands of years, and all 56 ethnic groups in China are the same, and they get together every year. There is also a gap between ancient and modern Spring Festival. You know, there were no high-tech products in ancient times. Compared with the modern Spring Festival, the Spring Festival is inevitably a bit boring. Just a poem by Wen Tianxiang is enough to prove that: Gan Kun is empty and the years pass; The end of the road is stormy, and the poor side is full of ice and snow. Life disappears with the years, and the body is forgotten; There is no such thing as killing Su Meng. It's still early at night. However, with the increase of entertainment, many traditional festivals have lost their meaning, as if the Spring Festival is just a longer holiday than the weekend for people to have fun and rest. The only function of New Year's Eve in the eyes of some modern people is to give people an excuse to have dinner with their families and watch the Spring Festival Gala for a while. This is sad. What happened to us in China? How did it change from an extremely noble race at first to this? Is it fallen in the ecstasy of modern society? Did you get lost in the financial crisis? Is it lost in the global warming environment? It's ... Anyway, China people don't have the spirit they used to have. The times are progressing, but the spirit of China is retrogressive: our spirit is like a snowy mountain, greedy, degenerate, selfish, bloody, cruel, crazy and jealous ... They are like countless suns, releasing energy all the time, and the spirit of China people is destroyed crazily. I believe that if China people don't wake up, this snow-capped mountain, which has been frozen for thousands of years, will be exposed to the sun and collapse, turning into countless snow water and then gradually turning into steam. I don't want this assumption to come true. Fortunately, however, natural disasters did not stop the people of China from falling. In a major earthquake, the basically dusty spirit woke up and became stronger, and the spirit of the Chinese nation woke up again. The earthquake seems to be a blow to our country, but on the other hand, it is helping the Chinese nation to wake up. We should thank it, not only for this earthquake, but also for all natural and man-made disasters, because they make the Chinese nation more mature.

Spring Festival, a traditional festival that has been passed down for thousands of years, sincerely hopes to be preserved. I hope the people of China can wake up, get rid of this trend that the meaning of the Spring Festival disappears, and let the traditional festival Spring Festival get a new rebirth.