Paying New Year calls

Another custom popular in the Spring Festival is paying New Year calls on venerable seniors, relatives and friends to extend New Year greetings.

The dates for the calls vary with different groups of callees. Usually, the first lunar month’s first day is for calls on close members of the same clan, and its third and fourth days for relatives or friends. The callers of different nationalities present different New Year gifts. Take for instance. The Tibetans present hadas; the Huis give sesame oil; the Hans offer liquor, pork, pastries, etc.. Men of letters, refined scholars and other influential figures present, beside other gifts, New Year cards bearing paintings, congratulatory words and names of both callers and callees, which are as fine as exquisite handicraft articles. The custom has a legend behind.

It is said that in ancient times existed a species of wild beasts named nian (Chinese for New Year). The beast, extremely ferocious, had a single horn, a basin-sized mouth and sword-like sharp teeth. Every New Year’s Eve, they would come from forested mountains to villager’ houses for food and human beings to eat. Panic-stricken villagers would put for the beasts some chickens, ducks or pork on main roads outside their courtyards, and stay behind closed doors to hide from the beasts. The animals would eat their fill and then go back to the mountains on the same New Year’s Eve. Early the next morning, villagers would congratulate each other on a lucky avoidance of disaster. Hence the custom later.