The Origin of Chinese New Year
The Chinese New Year is now popularly known as the Spring Festival because it starts from the beginning of spring.Its origin is too old to be traced.Several explanations are hanging around.All agree，however，that the word Nian，which in modern Chinese solely means year，was originally the name of a monster beast that started to prey (捕食) on people the night before the beginning of a new year.
One legend goes that the beast Nian had a very big mouth that would swallow a great many people with one bite.People were very scared.One day，an old man came to their rescue，offering to subdue (制服) Nian.To Nian he said，“I hear that you are very capable，but can you swallow the other beasts of prey on earth instead of people who are by no means of your worthy opponents？”So，it did swallow many of the beasts of prey on earth that also harassed (骚扰) people and their domestic animals from time to time.
After that，the old man disappeared riding the beast Nian.He turned out to be an immortal god.Now that Nian is gone and other beasts of prey are also scared into forests，people begin to enjoy their peaceful life.Before the old man left，he had told people to put up red paper decorations on their windows and doors at each year's end to scare away Nian in case it sneaked (潜行) back again，because red is the color the beast feared most.From then on，the tradition of observing the conquest of Nian is carried on from generation to generation.The term “Guo Nian”，which may mean “Survive the Nian”，becomes today “Celebrate the (New) Year” as the word “Guo” in Chinese has both the meanings of “pass-over” and “observe”．The custom of putting up red paper and firing firecrackers to scare away Nian is still around.However，people today have long forgotten why they are doing all this，except that they feel the color and the sound add to the excitement of the celebration.
[阅读障碍词]
1．be known as 被认为是……；以……著称
2．hang around 闲荡；徘徊
3．originally adv. 最初，起初；本来
4．swallow vt. 忍受；吞没
5．come to one's rescue 救援某人，帮助某人
6．by no means 决不
7．turn out 结果是，证明是
8．carry on 继续
