35. The Spring Festival is the most important festival in China. In order to celebrate this festival, people do a lot of things, such as cleaning the whole house, posting couplets, visiting friends and , and so on. off firecrackers is one of the most important activities. Do you know why people set off firecrackers?
This is a story about Nian. Once upon a time, there was a bad monster Nian. On the Eve of the New Year, Nian would come up from sea and eat the villagers. People were scared that they would all hide in their houses. One Spring Festival's Eve, the monster came again. The
hid in their houses. The monster went to the first house. Suddenly it heard a loud noise: BANG! BANG! BANG! The noise scared the monster. And it saw fire and red paper around the door. It ran .
The villagers went to the first house. The people in the first house told them that Nian was of red, light and thunder (雷声). So it saw the red paper and the lights and heard the firecrackers, it just ran away.
Since then, people get and have a family reunion (团圆饭) on New Year's Eve. They put red couplets on the door, wear red clothes, set off firecrackers and keep the house bright all long.