Nian, the monster. Traditional Chinese stories

Nian, the monster is a Chinese folk tale that explains to children why the Chinese New Year is celebrated with noise, firecrackers, dances and a lot of red color. A long time ago, there was a monster named Nian. He loved having a small town in China terrorized and visited it once a year to scare its

Nian, the monster is a Chinese folk tale that explains to children why the Chinese New Year is celebrated with noise, firecrackers, dances and a lot of red color.

A long time ago, there was a monster named Nian. He loved having a small town in China terrorized and visited it once a year to scare its inhabitants. He always visited the town on the first day of the year, to remind the locals that he was still there for another year and that they should remain scared.

Chinese short story: Nian, the monster

The terror that Nian woke up could have lasted forever but one day, by chance, one of the villagers wore a red tunic. When the monster Nian approached him and saw the red robe, he began to flee. The villager was scared to see the monster and fell down the metal bucket that was transporting, causing a noise and annoying noise that scared even more Niam, the monster, who left there at high speed.

When returning to the village, the villager told all his neighbors his encounter with the monster and the luck he had had: his red robe had scared Nian and with the noise of the metal bucket the monster started to flee without looking back.

Knowing how to make the monster stop scaring them, all the villagers spent a whole year getting ready. When Nian reappeared the following year, everyone went to look for the red flags and rattles they had been making during the year.

With the noise of the rattles and the agitation of the red flags, Nian, the monster, ran away terrified and the inhabitants of the town never saw him again.

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