The Year Beast

Xin Nian Kuai Le (新年快樂), happy lunar new year!
Seems as good a time to start a blog as any.

Got woken up at 7am by someone letting off a string of firecrackers outside the Tu Di Gong shrine by ooer wee hoosie. Set me thinking - why are Chinese folk so mad on firecrackers round this time?

(so I told this story to Monkey while we laid around in bed - nothing like a good lie in during the holiday season... Angela)

There's the story of the Nian, the Year Beast ("Nian/年" = Year), a fearsome creature that would emerge from the sea and terrorise villages around new year. Once there was a village that was preparing to flee inland before the time of the Nian's arrival, but one old granny was near to death and wanted to be able to spend the last of her time peacefully in her home. So she refused to leave with the others, and went about her daily chores. Later that day, a old beggar came through the village, but was puzzled to find no-one there, and no-one to beg from. When the old granny saw the beggar, she invited him to her house, because he looked hungry and tired. When he asked where all the people had gone, she explained that they had all fled before the Year Beast arrived. The beggar laughed and asked "Is that all it is? Leave the Nian to me. But do as I say. You must make dumplings, and no matter what you hear or imagine, you mustn't stop chopping!" So the old lady set to, chopping pork for the dumplings.
Meanwhile the beggar went off and made a long string of bamboo firecrackers and hung them all around the roof and door of the old granny's house. Then he went through the house and found all the red paper and fabric he could, and hung it over the walls of the house, and those of her neighbours.
Just then, the old lady heard the roar of the Year Beast, as it came charging into the village, looking for prey. It ran up and down streets, but couldn't find anyone, because they had all fled. But then it heard the sound of the old lady's knife chopping on her wooden board, and it turned towards her house. Just as it approached her door, the beggar set off the firecrackers, and suddenly the Beast was overwhelmed with loud bangs, the smell of sulphur, red colour everywhere it looked, and still the persistent sound of a knife striking a wooden chopping board. In its terror and confusion it fled the village, never to return again.
And that is why, around Chinese New Year, people decorate their houses in red, hang firecracker-like decorations all around, and let off real, loud firecrackers at every opportunity, even at 7 in the morning!

Happy Year of the Rat!