Chinese New Year  Happy Chinese New Year
From 101lifeStyle.com
History Of Chinese New Year Celebration: The other name for Chinese New Year is "Spring Festival". Its origin is too old to be traced. In other Asian countries like Mainland China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan, it is celebrated using the Lunar calendar and called The Lunar Near Year. The beginning of the festival is on the first day of the first month, in Chinese meaning pinyin, zheng Yue, according to the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th of the month, known as Lantern Festival. The day before Chinese New Year, that is the eve, is called Chuxi, meaning "Year-pass eve". According to the Lunar Calendar, Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festival.
Common expressions heard at this time is Guonion, that is to have made it through the old year and Bainian, that is congratulating the New Year. The Chinese calendar is different from that used in the United Kingdom or the normal calendar used over the universe. It is made up of a cycle of twelve years, each of them being named after an animal. This is similar like the signs of our zodiac. Some people believe that if some people are born in a particular year, such as the year of the dog, they will have some of the characteristics of that animal.
Since the origin of Chinese New Year is centuries old,it is popular due to its myths and beliefs and traditions. The Ancient Chinese New Year gives importance to how the people behaved and what they believed in the most. One of the most famous legends is that of Nien, who was a cruel and ferocious beast, who would eat people on New Year' eve. Thousands of years ago, there was a monster known as Nian, the Chinese word for "Year", who plagued terrorized China. He had a big mouth filled with razor sharp teeth and on hi head, a single horn. He had a taste for human flesh. He lived on the bottom of the ocean most part of the year and in the evening on New Year's Eve, he would come out of the water and up on the shore and begin to devour people and livestock. Every New Year's Eve people would run from their villages with their livestock and to far off remote mountains, where they could not be found to avoid being eaten. When New Year's Day would come, they would climb back down from the mountains and rebuild their villages, which were inevitably destroyed by the anger and terrorism of Nien when he was unable to find anything to eat.
In a village named Peach Blossom Village, on one New Year's Eve, as the people where getting ready to leave with their livestock, they found that an old beggar came to the village. The old beggar went from door to door, in the search of food but the people were in such a hurry they did not notice him. Then the beggar went to an old woman shack, she saw him and offered him food, advising him to run along with them to the mountains as the monster was on the prowl. The beggar refused, stating that he was not scared and informed the old woman that if she allowed him to spend the night in her home he would take care of the monster. The old woman did not believe the beggar because the monster was huge and strong and was capable of devouring thousands of people in a single evening and what could this little beggar do against a huge monster. She looked at the beggar who was leaning on his stick and noticed something different about his eyes, they were twinkling like stars and his beard appeared to look like silver and then she suspected that he was more than a beggar, yet her fear got the better of her and she begged him to run with her, but his reply to her was only a smile.  Introduction To Chinese New Year
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