Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Nian
It was a time of ancient custom, tribes and warlords. From the direction of the rising sun were people doesn't know the days and years, in a place long before what is now called China. There was a hideous beast rumpage through villages, the fields and huts.

It sprints on its fours at the speed of light, its roar was deafening, on top of its head was two horns that were stained with blood, but nothing compared to its teeth, still bearing the remains of its previous victim. And especially likes to eat little children who likes reading other people's blog like YOU!! The beast was commonly known by the people as NIAN.

IT was some time later when they discovered that the NIAN has weakness. It is afraid of bright colours, especially red and orange. And was afraid of loud noises. Human, as always, learned. They made use of its weakness and manage to subude the NIAN and subsequently slayed it.

EVeryone was overwhelmed with joy upon the victory and celebrated that day for 15 straight days!
Nonetheless, exactly 365 days later, another NEW NIAN came suddenly. Knowing its weakness, people from tribes were able to quickly kill it before it can do any harm. The victory was celebrated upon once again.

From then on, human noticed a cycle of the NIAN. It lay its young before going down town to hunt (but was immediately killed). The young, need exactly 365 days before it can fully mature and lay its young once more... (the cycle goes on and on).

That was why every 365 days, everyone wore red and lit fire crackers to celebrate the slaying of the NEW NIAN and that was why it is called the Xin NIAN!!
.....................

I blurted out the word NIAN, during lunch at can 14, when i noticed i was the only one wearing bright shirt for the past two days in the kanza group, the rest were wearing black and gray. Then MAG turned to me and asked,'what is a nian?"
Sinyee , who was sitting beside her, and i were shocked. And i told mag the story. (excluding the reproduction part)
She vaguely rmbed hearing the story before.
Joel, who was sitting at the far side of the table and couldnt hear us, asked,'What are you talking about?"
It was around that time when we realised JOEL never heard of the NIAN story and i had to tell him once again.
Being the first class gpa 5.0, it was his nature to be skeptical. "Then how come it is called XIN nian?when you are supposed to kill the old nian?"

Labels: school

Catching the falling leaves ...[11:14 PM]

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