We have just added a new Chinese New Year E card to the site, featuring a creature called a Nien!. This is our first New year card and it required a bit of research of the event and on discovering a legend about the origin of Chinese New Year we had our inspiration.
Mythical creature the Nien
The beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nien which would come on the first day of New Year to devour livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors step at the beginning of every year. It was believed that after the Nien ate the food they prepared, it wouldn’t attack any more people. The villagers also found out that the Nien was afraid of the colour red. So every time the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nien. From then on, Nien never came to the village again.
Tags: Chinese new year