How did the saying of setting off firecrackers to catch up with the New Year come from?

Spring Festival is an important traditional festival in China. On this day, every family member gets together, including jiaozi, putting up Spring Festival couplets and setting off firecrackers, which gives people a peaceful and warm atmosphere. However, like other festivals, every festival in China has its own legends and allusions, and there is also a fairy tale circulating in China during the Spring Festival. As we all know, the version of this fairy tale, Spring Festival, was specially stipulated by the ancients to drive away Nian beast. But have you ever wondered why we should call the Spring Festival China New Year, since the Year of the Beast is a bad omen? In fact, this is a myth misinformation, so what is the real situation? Today, I asked Bian Xiao to answer your question.

Nian beast, which has a very bad reputation among Chinese people, belongs to the devil monster. Most people think that this is a myth handed down from ancient times. Unfortunately, Bian Xiao went to the library and found many books about ancient myths, such as Sou Shen Ji, Shan Hai Jing, and even Pu Songling's Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio in Qing Dynasty. There is no record of Nian beast. What the hell is going on here? In fact, the story about Nian beast is only fabricated by modern people in combination with some customs of Chinese New Year, and it is a misinformation. Of course, making up stories also needs a blueprint, and many people have never heard of the prototype of Nian beast stories.

According to legend, a long time ago, people lived a quiet life, with food and drink, warmth and harvest. But before long, people began to have a headache, that is, every winter, there will be cases of stealing food and killing livestock and poultry in the village. Later, after observation by the villagers, it was found that it was all done by a monster. This monster is extremely fierce, with sharp teeth and claws, and its sound is even more frightening. Even several villagers who went to catch monsters were killed and eaten by monsters. For a time, the villagers were very afraid, and they began to live in the shadow of monsters. At that time, people named it "the evening beast".

On this day, a young man came to the village. He claimed to be able to exorcise demons and fight monsters in the world. When the villagers saw the young man, they seemed to see a glimmer of hope and began to take out their savings to support him. Sure enough, young people are really not simple. When the beast at night came to the village again, the young man didn't fight it. Instead, they made a bonfire early, and then baked a lot of bamboo in the fire. Bamboo makes a crackling sound. After hearing these sounds, the beast at night was very scared and began to run around the village. However, people have already taken out their red lanterns and hung them in front of the door, which makes the evening beast even more flustered and quickly ran to the Woods and disappeared.

The young man drove away the night beast and became a great hero. Only then did everyone know that the young man's name was Nian. In order to commemorate the contribution of the year, people began to call the day of driving away the night beasts "Chinese New Year", also called "New Year's Eve". In order to prevent the night beasts from invading the village again, people gradually set off firecrackers and put up Spring Festival couplets on the first day of the New Year in an attempt to scare away the night beasts.

It is this myth that can explain the definitions of "Chinese New Year" and "New Year's Eve". Many people may have another question. What animal is the evening beast? In fact, this small series doesn't know. After all, thousands of years have passed, but one thing is certain: nocturnal animals should be some kind of fierce carnivores. The reason why it hurts the people in the village is only because of the lack of food in winter and the normal foraging habits of animals.