The origin of Chinese lunar New Year.

It is said that there was a monster called 年（nian 2）in the ancient time of china. The年（nian 2） monster was huge in size and with antenna in his head. Usually, it lived in the deep bottom of ocean, but in the New Year Eve, it will come out into villages to devour livestock and lives. However, people found that the年（nian 2）monster was afraid of red color, bright light and slam-bang after they were hurt many years. So in the New Year Eve (which is called 除（chu 2）夕(xi 1)in china), Chinese people put up couplets written on red paper on their gate, hung red lantern on gate beam, set off fireworks and stay up all night , which was called 守（shou 2）岁(sui 4) in china and people still stick to this tradition now. 守（shou 2）岁(sui 4) tradition tells the deep lingering about the passing old year and the nice longing for the coming new year. If you are living china now or going to spend the new year 2008 together with your Chinese friends, you can experience守（shou 2）岁(sui 4) by yourself.