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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 ▲▼
God name
"Gondas"
Lithuanian A local god of domesticity and human sexuality. Lithuanian
Demon name
"Guinechen"
Araucanian A god whose fights with Pillan the thunder-god and Guecufu king of the demons keeps the universe in equilibrium. Araucanian
Goddess name
"Gula (great one)"
Mesopotamian / Sumerian / Babylonian - Akkadian Goddess of healing. Consort of NINURTA. Her animal is the dog. She may be synonymous with NIN'INSINA. Also mentioned in Hellenistic Babylonian times. A Gula temple is described at Uruk. Also NINTINUGGA....
Goddess name
"Gunura"
Mesopotamian / Sumerian / Babylonian - Akkadian deity of uncertain status. Described variously as the husband of the goddess NIN'INSINA and the father of Damu (DUMUZI), but also as the sister of Damu....
God name
"Gynaecothoenas"
Greek the god feasted by Women, a surname of Ares at Tegea. In a war of the Tegeatans against the Lacedaemonian king Charillus, the women of Tegea made an attack upon the enemy from an ambuscade. This decided the victory. The women therefore celebrated the victory alone, and excluded the men from the sacrificial feast. Greek
God name
"HERYSAF (he who is upon his lake)"
Egypt Primeval deity åśśociated both with Osiris and Re. Herysaf is a ram god said to have emerged from the primeval ocean, possibly recreated in the form of a sacred lake at Hnes, the capital of Lower Egypt for a time at the beginning of the third millennium (during the First Intermediate Period). The god is depicted with a human torso and the head of a ram wearing the atef crown of Lower Egypt. Herysaf began as a local deity but took on national importance as the soul (ba) of RE, and of OSIRIS. Herysaf's sanctuary was enlarged by Rameses II and the god is said to have protected the life of the last Egyptian pharaoh when the Persian and later Macedonian dominations began. He eventually became syncretized with HERAKLES in Greco-Roman culture and Hnes became known as Herakleopolis ...
God name
"Hahanu"
Mesopotamian / Sumerian / Babylonian - Akkadian God of uncertain function. Known from påśśing reference in texts and from inscriptions....
God name
"Hani(s)"
Mesopotamian / Babylonian - Akkadian Minor god. The attendant of ADAD and linked with SULLAT....
God name
"Hayasum"
Mesopotamian / Sumerian / Babylonian - Akkadian Minor god. Known from texts, but of uncertain function....

"Hegemone"
Greek That is, the leader or ruler, is the name of one of the Athenian Charites. When the Athenian ephebi took their civic oath, they invoked Hegemone. Hegemone occurs also as a surname of Artemis at Sparta, and in Arcadia. Greek
God name
"Hendursaga"
Mesopotamian / Sumerian / Babylonian - Akkadian God of the law. He was titled by Gudea of Lagas ”herald of the land of Sumer.”...

"Huecuvoe"
Chile The evil supreme being. Auraucanians, Chile

"Iacchus"
Greek The solemn name of the mystic Bacchus at Athens and Eleusis. The Phrygian Bacchus was looked upon in the Eleusinian mysteries as a child, and as such he is described as the son of Demeter and Zeus, and as the brother of Cora, that is, the male Cora or Corus.

"Iakchos"
Greek An epithet of Dionysus in the Eleusinian mysteries, derived from the element iacho, meaning "to shout." Greek

"Iasus 9"
Greek A son of Sphelus, the commander of the Athenians in the Trojan war, was slain by Aeneias.
God name
"Icarius"
Greek Also called Icarus and Icarion. An Athenian, who lived in the reign of Pandion, and hospitably received Dionysus on his arrival in Attica. The god showed him his gratitude by teaching him the cultivation of the vine, and giving him bags filled with wine. Icarius now rode about in a chariot, and distributed the precious gifts of the god; but some shepherds whom their friends intoxicated with wine, and who thought that they were poisoned by Icarius, slew him, and threw his body into the well Anygrus, or buried it under a tree. Greek
God name
"Iccovellauna"
Ouranian God of Ale Brewing. Ouranian
God name
"Igigi"
Mesopotamian / Sumerian / Babylonian - Akkadian Collective name of a clåśś of gods. The group of younger sky gods in the pantheon headed by ENLIL (ELLIL). They are often described in the texts in conjunction with the ANUNNAKI....
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