According to tales and legends， Chinese New Year started with a mythical beast called the Nian . The Nian would eat villagers， especially children in the middle of the night.One year， all the villagers decided to hide from the beast. An older man appeared before the villagers went into hiding and said that he would stay the night and would get revenge on the Nian. The old man put red papers up and set off firecrackers. The day after， the villagers came back to their town and saw that nothing had been destroyed. They assumed that the old man was a deity who came to save them. The villagers then understood that the Nian was afraid of the color red and loud noises.Then the tradition grew when New Year was approaching， and the villagers would wear red clothes， hang red lanterns， and red spring scrolls on windows and doors and used firecrackers and drums to frighten away the Nian. From then on， Nian never came to the village again.
