Years passed and nothing serious happened, so people were less worried about Nian. They no longer set up everything earlier，checked all the doors or stayed up all night during “Nian Guan” but lived a more usual life. The peace was suddenly broken when Nian broke into a village in Jiangnan on a New Year’s Eve and killed almost all the people.
Later, people figured out that Nian came into villages every 365 days to hunt humans deep in the night and went back to the woods at dawn.
The night Nian came was called “Nian Guan”, the last night of a year. On this day, dinner was ready much earlier than before. People cleaned up the kitchen, checked the livestock and locked up all the doors. After everything was set, they began to have dinner.
For this dinner might be the last one they could ever have, it was very splendid. Before the feast, people worshipped their ancestors, praying for a safe and sound night. Then every single member of the family gathered around the table to enjoy the family reunion.
After the dinner, no one dared to sleep. They stayed up all night, chatting with each other to get rid of the fear in the dim light of the candle or oil lamp. This is New Year’s Eve, a time to wave goodbye to the past and look forwar——注：本儿童绘本只在线发布电子版，无纸质图书
《春节来历的绘本故事： 熬年守岁和年兽的传说》
扫一扫 收听《pon a time, a monster called Nian lived in the deepest forest. It was so fearsome and fierce that creatures up in the sky, down on the earth and deep in the sea could all be served as its meal. It hunted different creatures everyday and even human beings couldn’t escape from it. People were terrified of it.
After some time, the sun rose in the long crow of roosters and the fierce and foolish monster reluctantly went back to the woods.
People were very happy that they got through “ Nian Guan”. They thanked for their ancestors’ blessing and congratulated each other on their survival through the night. They also set off fireworks and visited their neighbors. This is “ Bai Nian” and the whole village was in festive mood.
Only a newly married couple and some children survived. The couple, who was dressing in big red clothes, was decorating their house with red curtains; the children were setting fire to some bamboos which later crackled across and lit up the whole yard. It was discovered that Nian immediately ran away when it came to that bright, noisy yard.
The sun went down and darkness fell. Nian came out of the woods and tiptoed to villages. To its disappointment, doors were firmly closed and streets were totally empty. Only some sesame stems could be found piled up in front of the doors. Nian went through the villages and got nothing but some sesame stems to chew.