Nian the Chinese Monster #AtoZChallenge

Part of the A-to-Z blog challenge. My theme is legends and legendary creatures. I hope you enjoy following along!

Nian the Chinese Monster

Legend tells of a huge beast resembling a lion, bearing horns on its head, named by the locals “Nian.” There are variations of the tale, but this one states that at every New Year’s eve it would come out of its lair to terrorize nearby villages, destroying and eating anything and anyone in its path. The villagers eventually gave up on trying to fight it and fled their village, running for safety the day before every new year, unable to stop the beast. Until one year, when a traveler was passing through the village and saw the villagers packing up and fleeing before the new year came.

They explained to him about the beast, and how they must flee to safety, but the traveler decided to stay behind in the village, promising that he would drive off this beast once and for all.

New year’s eve approached, and the beast came into the village, ready to rip and tear everything apart. But then stopped and stared about. Red was painted on all the doors, all the walls, of the village. Bright colors danced about, and the beast grew nervous, for it hated red and anything bright.

Then something crackled and exploded with a loud sound. It frightened the beast and hurt his ears. But the booming sounds wouldn’t stop, and the explosions soon filled the air. Explosions that we now call fireworks.

Unable to stand the sights and sounds anymore, the beast fled. And when the villagers returned to find their village intact, they praised the traveler and his success. Now at every New Year’s Eve, red and other bright colors are brought out and fireworks are shot up into the sky to continue the tradition and scare the beast away.

Interesting how traditions are made, isn’t it? 🙂 I can’t help but wonder if there once was some lion-like animal that would prowl villages, and people would make loud noises to scare it off.
What are some of your favorite traditions?

Join us tomorrow in another mysterious legend! Don’t forget to click on the “Follow” button to be notified of new blog posts!

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(Information: ancient-origins, credit: Art/gifs belongs to their respective owners, not me. I make no profit through this.)