the story behind Chinese New Year

According to legend, the celebration of the Chinese New Year began with a monster called Nian. The beast would arrive on the first day of the new year and devour crops, livestock and people. To protect themselves, people put food outside their doors, hoping that Nian wouldn’t attack after eating. They also used firecrackers to scare it away. One year, Nian was driven from a village by a child wearing red clothes, so people began hanging red lanterns and scrolls on their windows and doors when a new year began—and Nian never returned. (Nian was eventually captured by Hongjunlaozu, a Taoist monk, and became his mount.)
Today, the Chinese New Year is celebrated with a festival that begins on the first day of the first lunar month in the Chinese calendar and ends on the fifteenth day (at least since the Han Dynasty—before that, dynasties celebrated during the twelfth, eleventh or tenth months). The Nian legend explains the food, the lanterns and the fireworks that we associate with the holiday.