Dancing dragons in the year of the pig

With all Chinese New Year celebration that I came across, there is always a dragon dance. And I mean always! While it is a mythical creature, dragon is believed by Chinese to be a symbol of strength, power and good luck. Having the dragon dance every new year is believed to bring all those that the creature symbolizes throughout the year.

Aside from dragon dance, there is always noise mostly from firecrackers during Chinese new year. That is because Chinese legend has it that lighting firecrackers will scare evil spirits away. Here is the story behind it.

Once upon a time, there was a fearsome monster called Nian (年, pronounced Nián). Every year, before the spring arrived, Nian would emerge from his den and hunt for prey. His favorite things to eat were children and livestock. People lived in fear of him, and they’d board up their houses before going somewhere to hide. As the residents of a village were packing up for their escape one year, an ancient man visited, begging for food. He was a stranger, and the people were too busy running away to tend to him. However, one kind old lady gave him rice and urged him to flee with the rest of the village. The old man said, “If you let me stay in your house for one night, I can promise you that the monster will never come back again.”

She was skeptical, but the beggar said, “Just leave it to me. I have a secret weapon to help fight this thing.” Although she let him stay at her house, she departed with everyone else. That night, the monster came to the village and saw candlelight shining in the window of one house. He approached the door, licking his lips, ready to pounce on the poor victim inside. But before he could enter, he saw three red banners that had been hung around entrance and he paused. The energy radiating from the talismans made him dizzy, but he was too hungry to care. He went on, desperate for a late-night meal.

Suddenly, the old man appeared. He tossed bamboo sticks into a bonfire that he’d prepared earlier. When the bamboo heated up, the air sealed in its hollow chambers expanded, and produced an explosive “Boom!” The noise startled the monster, and he ran away, never to be seen again.

The villagers returned the next morning, and to their surprise, the old man was safe and sound. He told them, “As long as you place these red banners on your door frames and light firecrackers on New Year’s Eve, Nian will never attack you.” The old man then rose in the air like a feather blown by the wind, and the villagers realized that he must have been a fairy …

That legend is why Chinese people started causing explosions on the eve of the New Year and hanging up red-paper signs. After gunpowder was invented 2,000 years ago, firecrackers replaced bamboo. Many people still believe that lighting firecrackers and fireworks will scare away the evil spirits of the past year and celebrate the coming of the new year. In fact, Nian, the name of the monster in the legend, is the word that the Chinese use for “year” (年). The color red became associated with ensuring good luck and banishing bad luck, so besides displaying decorations of that hue, celebrants began wearing red clothing and giving out red envelopes.