熬年守歲 Staying Up Late Into The New Year

一月 / 二月份專題展覽
January / February Themed Exhibition

 (1) 守歲，就是在舊年的最後一天裡不睡覺，熬夜迎接新一年的到來的習俗，也叫除夕守歲，俗名“熬年”，探究這個習俗的來歷，在民間流傳著一個有趣的故事……
On the eve of Chinese New Year, it has been a tradition for the Chinese to stay up into the wee hours of the first day of Chinese New Year. This is known as Ao Nian (staying up late into the New Year). This tradition is wrapped in an interesting legend.

(2) 太古時期，有一種兇猛的怪獸，散居在深山密林中，人們管它們叫“年”。它的形象猙獰，生性兇殘，專食飛禽走獸、鱗介蟲豸，一天換一種口味，從磕頭蟲一直吃到大活人，讓人談“年”色變。後來，人們慢慢掌握了“年”的活動規律，它是每隔三百六十五天窜到人群聚居的地方嘗一次口鮮，而且出沒的時間都是在天黑以前，等到雞鳴破曉，它們便返回山林中去了。

Once upon a time, there were some ferocious creatures in the deep forests. They were called Nian, a type of creature that ate up every living animal in sight, including the humans. People were terrified of Nian. As time passed, people began to notice that Nian only appear once every 365 days and it usually appeared at night and returned to the forests at dawn.

 (3) 算準了“年”肆孽的日期，百姓們把這個可怕的一夜視為關口來煞，稱作“年關”，並且想出了一整套過年關的辦法：每到這一天的晚上，每家每戶都提前做好晚飯，熄火淨爐，再把雞圈牛欄全部拴牢，把宅院的前後們都封住，躲在屋裡吃“年夜飯”……
Nian Guan was referred as the day at which Nian will appear. As everyone knew that the night was going to be a critical moment to defeat Nian, people prepared for a big meal in advance, cleaned the kitchen and flamed out. They closed both the front and back doors and their family members sat around the table for a reunion dinner......

剩下最後一個章節就由您親自到我們圖書館來揭曉吧！
Visit our library for the last part of this interesting story!

恆毅中學圖書館恭祝各位讀者新年快樂！
Heng Ee Library wishes all our readers a Happy Chinese New Year!

資料來源：網絡孔子學院

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