A long time ago, there was a vicious monster called "Nian". "Old" long green fangs, sharp horns and sharp claws, cruel.
"Nian" usually lives on the seabed, and it is only during the Chinese New Year's Eve of the year that he emerges from the sea and goes to the village to devour livestock and harm people's lives. Every Chinese New Year's Eve day, in order to avoid the harm of the "New Year", people lead livestock and carry valuable objects away from home to hide, called "New Year".
Chinese New Year's Eve this year, people helped the old man and the young to take refuge, an old man begging for food entered the village, and an old woman who was packing up her family's belongings to go out took out the boiled dumplings and asked the old man to eat, and advised him to follow him up the mountain to hide. After the old man finished eating the dumplings, he said that he wanted to repay the old woman's kindness, so he asked the old woman to go up the mountain first, and he wanted to drive away the monster "Nian".
In the middle of the night, "Nian" broke into the village, found that the village was brightly lit, its eyes were pierced by red light, and then there was the sound of "crackling" firecrackers, "Nian" was frightened by this scene and sound, after returning to God, he turned around and ran, plunged into the sea, and never dared to return to land again.
It turned out that "Nian" was afraid of red, noise and fire. People further believe that all demons and ghosts are afraid of red, noise and fire, so every year Chinese New Year's Eve every household to paste red couplets and set off firecrackers; Household candles are bright and wait for the age. Early in the morning of the first day of the first year, I also had to go to my relatives and friends to say hello and congratulate the other party on surviving the ravages of the "Nian" beast. Later, this custom spread more and more widely, and became the most solemn traditional festival in Chinese folklore.
Firecracker exorcism is recorded in the Southern Dynasty "Jingchu Chronicle": after people get up together at the beginning of the first month, the first thing they do is to put bamboo in the fire and burn it, and the bursting sound of bamboo in the fire can drive away demons and ghosts.