There used to be a monster that lived in the mountain. There was once where the monster chance upon a village. The monster liked the village as he could find a lot of nice food and interesting people there. There after, he visits the village frequently. Whenever the monster pay a visit at the village, the villagers' crops will be destroyed and some villagers will die under the feet of the monsters.

Ever since the monster's first visit, the villagers have being planning how to chase the monster away once and for all. There was once when the head of the village find out that the monster is afraid of fire. So they started making bright red colour cloth for the whole village. The villagers also pasted red paper on the houses and trees and plantations. Fire crackers were also lit to produce spark and stimulate the fire'. Drums were beat to frighten the monster at the same time.

This day, the monster decided to visit the village again. However, from far, the monster saw a red village with a lot of sparks. Thinking that the village is on fire, the monster ran into the mountain and never came out of the mountain again.

The villagers were very happy and every year on the same day, all the villagers will wear red. As the villagers believed that wearing red on that day will help them to chase' away the unhappiness, the evil, monsters and etc. As such, wearing red will bring good fortune, good luck and good health. The same goes for pasting red papers on the walls of the houses, playing with red fire crackers and lion dance. This is the same reason why Chinese like red colour as it is always associated with good luck, good fortune and good health.

The reason for staying up late on the eve of Chinese new year is because the longer you stay up to chase' away the monster' for the year, the better the new year will be for you.

As the villagers were very happy that they succeed chasing the monster away, they went round the village congratulating each other. This is why the Chinese have the practice to visit family, relatives and friends during Chinese new year.

The name of the monster is called nian'. That's why Chinese new year is also known as kou nian' which means passing by the monster. This has the same meaning as the monster is no longer around.

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