Red Envelope

Posted by: Tanveer Rauf on: November 7, 2014

In: Children and Education
4 Comments

Chinese New Year started many thousands of years ago. It is celebrated even now every year. It is celebrated to remember and pay tribute to their ancestors. Grand parties are thrown and gifts exchanged. “Red Envelops” signifies lucky money. Chinese have continued their ancient traditions with pride and pleasure. The nations that keep their traditions and virtues alive flourish and boot. China is the best example.

One of such tradition is the story you’ll read and enjoy;

Thousands of years back, there was a monster named Nian. It loved to visit a small village of china every year to scare people and have fun. He wanted the people to know that Nian is alive and comes every year before the dawn breaks for the new day of the New Year. He scaring every one he came cross would get delight. Simple people were terrified of him and his tomfoolery. Nian waited anxiously for the year to end and New Year to come so he could again harass people.

Nian’s naughtiness would have continued forever. But one day, luckily by chance, a villager was wearing a red tunic and going to his field. The village didn’t know that Nian would suddenly jump out to scare him. Nian did jump out to scare him. But Nian itself was very scared of red color. So when it saw the red tunic, it ran away. The village being terribly frightened himself dropped the metal bucket he was carrying. The bucket bounced down the hill behind Nian, hitting every rock in its path. It made a terrible sound. Nian getting more frightened of the red tunic and the rolling sound ran away faster.

The villager told his story of fabulous luck to everyone. His red tunic scared the Nian monster and the roaring sound of the bucket made it ran away. This was good news.

The next year, the villagers were prepared to face Nian. When they saw the monster coming, they ran after him waving red banners and shaking rattlers. Nian got so scared of the red color and loud sound, that he ran away as fast as its legs could carry him. The villagers never saw Nian again.

That’s why people in china believe the red color signifies luck. Children and even adults shake rattlers and light fire crackers making loud noise on Chinese New Year’s eve. They believe that by doing this they scare away the evil spirits, and monsters like Nian if any.