1、The Chinese New Year is now popularly known as the Spring Festival because it starts from the Begining of Spring (the first of the twenty-four terms in coodination with the changes of Nature). 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 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 Nian. To Nian he said I hear say 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 harrassed 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 years end to scare away Nian in case it sneaked back again because red is the color the beast feared the 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 having both the meaning of pass-over and observe. The custom of putting up red paper and firing fire-crackers to scare away Nian should it have a chance to run loose 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.

2、中國(guó)的新年現(xiàn)在被普遍稱為春節(jié)，因?yàn)樗鼜拇禾扉_始（二十四節(jié)氣中的第一個(gè)節(jié)氣與自然的變化相協(xié)調(diào)）。它的起源太古老了，無(wú)法追溯。有幾種解釋正在流傳。然而，所有人都同意，“年”這個(gè)詞在現(xiàn)代漢語(yǔ)中的唯一意思是“年”，它最初是一種怪獸的名字，在新年的前一天晚上開始捕食人類。

傳說(shuō)年獸有一張大嘴巴，一口就能吞下很多人。人們非常害怕。一天，一位老人來(lái)救他們，提出要制服年。他對(duì)年說(shuō)：“我聽說(shuō)你很能干，但是你能吞下地球上其他的猛獸，而不是那些根本不是你的對(duì)手的人嗎？”因此，它確實(shí)吞下了地球上的許多猛獸，這些猛獸也時(shí)不時(shí)地折磨著人們和他們的家畜。

之后，老人騎著獸年消失了。他原來(lái)是個(gè)不朽的神?，F(xiàn)在年已經(jīng)不在了，其他的猛獸也被嚇進(jìn)了森林，人們開始享受他們平靜的生活。老人走之前，他曾告訴人們每年年底都要在門窗上掛上紅紙裝飾物，以嚇跑年獸，防止它再溜回來(lái)，因?yàn)榧t色是野獸最怕的顏色。

從此，觀察年征服的傳統(tǒng)一代一代地傳承下來(lái)?！斑^(guò)年”一詞，意思是“過(guò)年”，今天變成了“過(guò)年”，因?yàn)椤斑^(guò)”一詞在漢語(yǔ)中既有“過(guò)”的意思，也有“過(guò)”的意思。貼紅紙、放鞭炮嚇跑年獸的習(xí)俗仍然存在。然而，今天的人們?cè)缫淹浟怂麄優(yōu)槭裁匆@么做，只是他們覺(jué)得顏色和聲音增加了慶祝的興奮。