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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Yesterday my temperature was a great 37 degrees and I was quite confident that I would be fit for school...but to my utter dismay, my temperature this morning was 38.4 degrees. There's no way I could go to school in that condition. It turned out that I had to miss another day of school...again. Sobs T.T

My temperature is 37 degrees plus right now but I doubt I can go to school tomorrow. I feel depressed. All I can do now is just sit at home and do some blogging.

Anyway, to look on the bright side, Chinese New Year is coming! With the coming of this great festival, I feel quite excited and exhilarated. Chinese New year is definitely a great holiday, because I can look forward to some Red Packets and sumptuous treats and oranges.^^

I've heard some tales and legends about how the Chinese New Year celebration came about. It is said that the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nian（年）or "Year" in Chinese. Nian would come on the first day of New Year to devour livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year. It was believed that after the Nian ate the food they prepared, it wouldn’t attack any more people.

←Southern Chinese lion dance portrays the 'Nian'.


One time, people saw that the Nian was scared away by a little child wearing red. The villagers then understood that the Nian was afraid of the color red. Hence, every time when the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From then on, the Nian never came to the village again. The Nian was eventually captured by Hongjun Laozu, an ancient Taoist monk. The Nian then became this monk's mount.

Interesting story, isn't it? But all this is just an ancient myth. There has been no evidence found behind this story that proved it to be true. It could just be a story made up by the ancient Chinese, but in my opinion, it is still an interesting tale nonetheless.

For those of you who have never heard of this story before, I hope you have enjoyed reading my post! ^^

written| 4:25 AM
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MUSIC!