中国新年普遍被人所知。作为春节它始于春天，它的起源是古老的以至于不能被追踪。 几个解释垂悬。 "年", 最初始于妖怪野兽的名字。

一个传奇故事： 野兽“年”有一张可以吞下许多人的大嘴，人们非常害怕。 一天, 一位老人征服”年”来挽救这种局面, 他对“年”说, "我听人说 您非常本事, 可以吞下地球上的所有人,但可不可以吞下其它野兽来代替这些根本不可能成为你敌人的人呢? "因此，“年”吞下了其它也伤害人和其它野兽的野兽。

在那以后, 老人骑着野兽”年”消失了 。 他是一个不朽的神。”年”离开了，其它野兽被惊吓入森林, 人们开始平安的生活。 在老人离开之前, 他告诉人们每年把红色纸装饰在窗口和门的末端，是为了驱走“年”, 以便它再偷偷地回来, 因大多数野兽恐惧红色。

Zhōng guó xīn nián pǔ biàn bèi rén suǒ zhī。zuò wéi chūn jiē tā shǐ yú chūn tiān，tā de qǐ yuán shì gǔ lǎo de yǐ zhì yú bú néng bèi zhuī zōng。jǐ gè jiě shì chuí xuán。" nián ", zuì chū shǐ yú yāo guài yě shòu de míng zì。

Yī gè chuán qí gù shì：yě shòu “ nián ” yǒu yī zhāng kě yǐ tūn xià xǔ duō rén de dà zuǐ，rén men fēi cháng hài pà。yī tiān, yī wèi lǎo rén zhēng fú ” nián ” lái wǎn jìu zhè zhǒng jú miàn, tā duì “ nián ” shuō, " wǒ tīng rén shuō nín fēi cháng běn shì, kě yǐ tūn xià dì qíu shàng de suǒ yǒu rén, dàn kě bú kě yǐ tūn xià qí tā yě shòu lái dài tì zhè xiē gēn běn bú kě néng chéng wéi nǐ dí rén de rén ne ? yīn cǐ，“ nián ” tūn xià le qí tā yě shāng hài rén hé qí tā yě shòu de yě shòu 。

Zài nà yǐ hòu, lǎo rén qí zhe yě shòu ” nián ” xiāo shī le。tā shì yī gè bú xǐu de shén。” nián ” lí kāi le，qí tā yě shòu bèi jīng xià rù sēn lín, rén men kāi shǐ píng ān de shēng huó。zài lǎo rén lí kāi zhī qián, tā gào sù rén men měi nián bǎ hóng sè zhǐ zhuāng shì zài chuāng kǒu hé mén de mò duān ，shì wéi le qū zǒu “ nián ”, yǐ biàn tā zài tōu tōu dì huí lái, yīn dà duō shù yě shòu kǒng jù hóng sè 。

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 (Do not lose track here: we are talking about the new year in terms of the Chinese calendar).

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, swallow it did many of the beasts of prey on earth that also harassed 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 year's end to scare away Nian in case it sneaked back again, because red is the color the beast feared the most.