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Legend of Nian Monster

The Legend of Nian Monster

Chinese people held the first New Year Festival more than 3,000 years ago. Farmers gave thanks for the harvest and prayed. They asked the gods for good crops in the coming year.

But there is a story behind all the celebration, below is the legend of how the Chinese New Year celebration began.

Legend has it that in ancient times, there was a monster called "Nian" ("year") that would come out to eat people and animals on the eve of every New Year. To avoid the monster's attack, people would flee to the depth of the mountains and call this day "Nian Guan" (meaning "the Pass of Nian"). On one New Year's Eve, there came an old beggar in Peach Blossom Village, where an old lady gave him some food and asked him to hide himself in the mountain to avoid the monster Nian. The old man promised that he could drive the monster away as long as he was put up for the night at the old lady's home. Being unable to persuade the old man into hiding in the mountain, the old lady went alone. In the middle of the night, the monster Nian dashed into the village. He trembled and cried when he saw the red paper on the door of the old lady's house, which was brightly lit. Just as the monster reached the entrance, there came blasting sounds that prevented him from moving any further. At that time, the old man, wearing a red robe, opened the door and the monster was scared away.

The following year, the villagers were ready for it. They set off firecrackers, lit all their lamps and decorated their houses in red, they paste red paper on the doors, wear red clothing, hang up red lanterns. They made loud music, play the gong and drums and they dance and burn the fireworks whenever Nian was about to arrive, to scared away the beast.This is how these customs came into being.




List of Gods : "Nian" - 306 records

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Name ▲▼Origin ▲▼Description ▲▼
Goddess name
"Belet-Ili (lady of tbe gods)"
Mesopotamian / BabylonianAkkadian Mother goddess. Known in Babylon and probably modeled on NINHURSAG A....
Goddess name
"Belet-Seri"
Mesopotamian / Babylonian - Akkadian Chthonic underworld goddess. The recorder of the dead entering the otherworld. Known as the “Scribe of the earth.”...
Goddess name
"Belili"
Mesopotamian / Babylonian - Akkadian Goddess. See GES TIN-ANA....
Goddess name
"Beltiya (my lady)"
Mesopotamian / Babylonian - Akkadian Generic title of goddess. ZARPANITUM (SARPANITUM), the consort of the Babylonian god MARDUK, is often addressed as Beltiya....
God name
"Bethel"
Western Semitic / Phoenician Local tutelary god. Probably of Aramaean or Syrian origin. First mentioned in a fourteenth century treaty between the Hittite king Suppiluliuma and Nigmadu II of Ugarit [Ras Samra]. He appears more regularly on inscriptions from the end of the seventh century BC and enjoyed considerable popularity during the neo-Babylonian period. Bethel is mentioned in the Biblical text of Jeremiah 48.13, implying that some Israelites acknowledged this deity. There is no evidence of links with the historical place names, including that mentioned in Genesis 38.13....
Goddess name
"Bibi the Child-Strangler"
Bibi Sometimes affectionately known as "Aunty Bibi," is a Romany witch-goddess. Bibi is an old crone who either wears torn black garments or is entirely naked. Like the Romanian goddess Dschuma, Bibi is disease incarnate, particularly cholera. She is referred to as "the child-strangler" because it is believed that disease often effects children, who are young and weak.
God name
"Birdu"
Mesopotamian / Babylonian - Akkadian Minor chthonic underworld god. Consort of MANUNGAL and syncretized with NERGAL....

"Biston"
Greek A son of Ares. Bistonians The Thracians; so called from Biston, son of Mars, who built Bistonia on the lake Bistonis. Greek
God name
"Bubilas"
Lithuanian A household god of bees. Later hypothetical reconstructions say that people sacrificed honey for Bubilas. People believed that doing so would make bees swarm better. Bubilas is the husband of Austeja. Lithuanian
Hero name
"Bura"
Greek A daughter of Ion, the ancestral hero of the Ionians, and Helice, from whom, the Achaean town of Bura derived its name.
Goddess name
"Caelestis"
Carthaginian / North Africa moon goddess. The Romanized form of the Punic goddess TANIT. Elsewhere she became syncretized into the cult of APHRODITE-VENUS. Annual games were held in her honor. She was brought to Rome in the form of an abstract block of stone (like that of KYBELE from Pessinus) and became popular there during the early part of the third century AD; in this guise she was known as the “mighty protectress of the Tarpeian hill.”...
Hero name
"Calydonius"
Greek A surname of Dionysus, whose image was carried from Calydon to Patrae and of Meleager, the hero in the Calydonian hunt.
Goddess name
"Chao san Niang"
China Goddess of wig salesmen China
God name
"Chin hua Niang niang"
China God of drums and violins China

"Daeira"
Greek the knowing, a divinity connected with the Eleusinian mysteries. A daughter of Oceåñuś, and became by Hermes the mother of Eleusis but others called her a sister of Styx. Greek
God name
"Dagan (1)"
Mesopotamian / Babylonian - Akkadian Grain and fertility god. Generally linked with ANU in giving status to cities e.g. the dedications by the ninth-century BC Assyrian king Assur-nasir-apli at Kalakh. Cult centers existed at Tuttul and Terqa....
Goddess name
"Damaannrna"
Mesopotamian / Sumerian / Babylonian - Akkadian Mother goddess. She first appears as a consort of ENLIL and, as Mesopotamian traditions progress, becomes åśśociated with EA and the mother of the Babylonian god MARDUK. Also DAMKINA (Akkadian)....
Goddess name
"Damkina"
Mesopotamian / Babylonian - Akkadian Goddess. Consort of Ea.See also DAMGALNUNA....
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