The Chinese New Year i now known as the Spring Festival because it starts from the beginning of spring.Though there are some sayings about its origin(起源),all agree that the word Nian,which in modern Chinese means"year",was originally the name of a beast(野兽)that starts to eat people the night before the beginning of a new year.
One tory goes that the beast Nian had a very big mouth that would take in a great many people at one time.People were very afraid.One day,an old man came to their help and aid he would top all this.To Nian,he said."I hear that you are very strong,but can you eat up all the beast on earth instead of people who are too weak to be your enemy(敌人)?""Yes,"Nian agreed with him and went to kill many of the beat on earth.People were very happy because those beasts also did bad things to people and killed farm animals from time to time.
After that,the old man,who was a god,rode on the beast Nian and left.Nian was gone,and other beasts also went into forest;people began to enjoy their happy life.Before the old man left,he had told people to put up red paper-cuts on their windows and doors at each year's end to drive Nian away,because red is the color that beast felt mot afraid of.
From then on,every year at the beginning of spring,people"Guo Nian".The words"Guo Nian"means "Go through the Nian safely".Putting up red paper-cuts to drive Nian away and making dumplings for a better year are still an every-year doing by the Chinese people.However(然而),people today have long forgotten why they are doing all this,they jut feel the color and the food made the New Year very enjoyable.
第一句New Year 后面是is 少打了个"s"