I don't know

That's what I say when I'm just too LAZY to think about ANYTHING.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

This post is dedicated to Kelvin Chong Ding Kang and anyone else who don't know what's 守夜. This is based on my understanding and I'll wiki later to give you a better concept.

Practically, 守夜 is a tradition passed down from the ancient Chinese. As all of you should know, 过年 is when we cross over to the next year. But it seems many of you actually don't realise what it actually means.

Long long time ago, there used to be a mythical creature called 年. Based on my impressions of it from many different sources, 年 looks like a lion. Yup, similar to what you see now, lion dance. Well anyway, 年 is the "bad guy" in this legend. 年 would often attack the village and eat people. And as such, many were in fear of this creature. But by chance, they realise that 年 actually has its Achilles' heel. And the Achilles' tendons are the colour red, and loud noise. And as such, the villagers prepared many red stuffs such as red paper to cover their doors so that 年 would not dare to attack them. Preparations were done and they awaited for 年's arrival. Soon, 年 appeared. Upon seeing its presence, the villagers came out from their ambush and lit the fire crackers and waved stuffs red in colour. (And I think some whacked pots and pans or maybe drums.) Upon seeing all these stuffs, 年 got frightened and ran away into the deep mountains, and never returned again. As such, peace was restored and everyone in the village were very happy. This is what we now called 过年. Literally, get over 年.

So next, I'll talk about the 守岁 part. 守岁 is a tradition passed down the many generations of the Chinese. So why how did it come about? Just around the period of 年's savage, children would all stay up in the late night just to keep a lookout for 年. This is to protect their parents from falling into 年's prey. And as such, every filial child would try their best stay awake so that 年 would not eat their parents. Because 正所谓 "百德以孝为先"。 But as the tradition passed down, it slowly evolved to become an act to lengthen your parent's lifespan. It is said that the longer to stay awake, the longer your parents will live. So you can say that it's an act of filial piety.

This is extracted from wikipedia:

Shou Sui

守岁(守歲) (Shou Sui) occurs when members of the family gather around throughout the night after the reunion dinner and reminisce about the year that has passed while welcoming the year that has arrived. Some believe that children who Shou Sui will increase the longevity of the parents.

一夜连双岁，五更分二年 means that the night of New Year's eve (which is also the morning of the first day of the New Year) is a night that links two years. 五更 (Wu Geng – the double hour from 0300 to 0500) is the time that separates the two years.

So have do you feel slightly smarter now? Now you'd know at least a little bit more of the true meaning behind Chinese New Year other than just receiving ang pao. :) I guess I'd write more about such stuffs for the following posts. Maybe only. Hehe. :D

So, are you gonna 守岁 for this coming New Year? :)