文　苑

One legend(傳說故事) goes that a beast(野獸) named Nian had a very big mouth. It can swallow（吞下） a lot of people with one bite（一口）. People were very scared（害怕）.

One day, an old man came to rescue(救援) them. Heoffered（提供） a way to subdue（降伏） Nian. He told people to put up（張貼） red paper decorations（窗花） on their windows and doors at each years end to scare away(嚇走) Nian, because red is the color the beast feared the most.

From then on, the tradition（傳統(tǒng)） of conquering （降伏）of Nian is carried on from generation to generation（代代相傳）. The word “過年”, which means “Survive the Nian”(度過年關(guān)) ,becomes todays “Celebrate the New Year”.