Dear LPG,

It seems that so many national holidays have been cancelled since the social aspect of every life has been affected by our need to stay away from each other, and I suspect that the Chinese New Year celebrations in a few days’ time, will not be the usual feature of the day’s news broadcasts that we have come to expect. 

In my experience, there are few national days of celebration which will result in quite so much noise and I suspect that many older ears will appreciate a rest from the volume that goes with all the other anticipated colour and spectacle that comes to mind when we foreigners think about it.   Most of the world would have seen something of their relatively loud parades in past years, which many onlookers either get excited about or are glad that they don’t live too near to. 

Being a person who is interested in all things oriental, I took a look to see what the internet has to say about why they have to make such a song and dance about it.

While we all accept that nearly every national holiday is rooted in some degree of tradition, superstition, protection and self-preservation seem to be the main reasons for all the noise that is such an important part of this one. Apparently all the use of the colour red, the fire crackers and the noise that we associate with their version of New Year, are necessary because the whole point of the event is an attempt to keep a mythical beast that they call ‘Nian’ at bay. Legend has it that, once every year he develops new year’s eve habits similar to those of King Kong, but he dislikes loud noise and vibrant colour.  Another thing that I found out is that this is often more than a one-day festival.  I found some interesting information and a, rather mythical online video which has become my favourite version of the explanation. 

So, as there is more than likely to be a lot less noise this year, I have asked LPG to show links to what I discovered in the hope that some readers might be interested and read a bit about it all.  

OC, Merton.

OC shares what she has learned about the Chinese New Year….

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… and has asked us to recommend the video she mentioned….

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