Nian - The Monster Beast

Today is the 15th day of the Chinese New Year (CNY) and it marks the end of the CNY celebration or the end of 'guo nian' (过年) or 'the passing of the beast'.

Nian, the monster beast. Courtesy of chinaa2z.com

In Chinese mythology, 'Nian' is a beast that lived deep under the sea and high up in the mountain. Nian would come out on the night before the Chinese New Year to prey on domestic animals and humans especially children. Since Nian was sensitive to noise, fire and red colour, to prevent the Nian from entering the house and to chase the Nian away, the tradition was to decorate the doors and windows with red papers, to dress the children in red and the parents would give their children red envelopes to be placed under their pillows to protect them, to explode firecrackers on the New Year eve until the morning of the new year to scare the Nian away.

I believed all these during those happy days as I believed in whatever my Grandma said. I would help my Dad sticking red papers on our doors and windows. On new year eve, I would not sleep until I got my red envelope from my Dad and put it under my pillow to make sure that Nian would not appear in my dream.

But now with all the youngsters wearing black, no more red papers on doors and windows and no more firecrackers (tidak boleh) to chase the Nian away, The future of Chinese looks very bleak and dangerous as that 'Tidak Boleh' is Nian's good friend and Nian eats only Chinese, that was what my Grandma said, you better believe her.

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