Long time ago, when Chinese still did not celebrate for New Year, people were scared of Nien (Year). What is Nien? Nien is a tremendously brutal and ferocious beast, which the Chinese believe, will come and eats people on New Year's Eve.
On New Year' Eve, as usual, Nien went to a village trying to find some people to eat. It went pass a house with a big red dress hung outside the house. Then, a strange thing happened. Nien started screaming after he saw the dress and run away.As it went to the other side of the village, Nien found something that scared him, the light from a house.
Finally people had found the key of keeping Nien away. So they pasted red-paper on doors, kept the lights on, and firecrackers were set off throughout the night. Early in the morning, the next day, as feelings of victory and renewal filled the people in the village, they felt that they could keep Nien away for another year.
Since then, everybody has celebrated for the New Year, and red light, red paper and firecrackers had become the tradition for Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year lasts for 15 days, starting with the new moon on the first day of the New Year in Chinese calendar and ending on the full moon night fifteen days later. The fifteenth day of the New Year is called the Lantern Festival or the Chinese Valentine's Day, which is celebrated at night with lantern displays.
In Japan, Oshogatsu, means New Year. If you want to say happy new year to your Japanese friends, say "Akemashite ometedou". There is no monster story behind the origin of Japanese New Year. So, what did it originate from?
Now, a solar calendar is used in Japan. This means that the dates and holidays are all based on the sun. Japanese New Year's Day is January 1st, just like other western countries. This calendar system was accepted on December 3, 1872 and that day became a newˇ§January 1,ˇ¨ the first New Year Day with solar calendar.
Before that, Japanese used lunar calendar for new year. Why would they change from lunar calendar to solar calendar? The livings of Japanese people from old days always depended on the sun because they were mainly farmers. In winter, they do not have much sunshine, but spring comes right after that and they could start working in the farm.
It was believed that every year, a new god comes down to each family. People welcome the god and celebrated the return of the sun for a good harvest. This is the origin of New Year's Day.
