Why do we stay up all night on New Year’s Eve? What good meaning does staying up all night on New Year’s Eve have?

Why do we stay up all night on New Year’s Eve? What good meaning does staying up all night on New Year’s Eve have?
Introduction: New Year’s Eve is the last day of the lunar year, and the new year begins after New Year’s Eve. There is a custom of staying up all night on New Year’s Eve. So why do we stay up all night on New Year’s Eve? What good meaning does staying up all night on New Year’s Eve have? Time has unknowingly come to the end of the year. Fortune Teller.com has prepared some information about the 2018 Chinese New Year's Eve. Click in to learn more!

Why do we stay up all night on New Year’s Eve?

Staying up all night on New Year’s Eve is one of the most important annual customs. New Year's Eve is about family reunions, and the New Year's Eve celebration begins with the New Year's Eve dinner, with the whole family sitting around the table together. Some families may eat the dinner all night long. But most families will put snacks and fruits on the table after eating the New Year’s Eve dinner, and the whole family will sit around the table and chat.
There are three different legends about staying up all night to celebrate the New Year. One is to welcome the Kitchen God. According to legend, the Jade Emperor's youngest daughter became the "Kitchen God's Wife". She knew the sufferings of the people very well and often went back to her parents' home to visit relatives. She would bring back some food, drinks, clothes and daily necessities from heaven to distribute to everyone. Starting from the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, "Kitchen God" begins to collect the things needed for the New Year's Eve dinner, and does not collect them all until New Year's Eve. In order for people to have a good year, she rushes back to the human world overnight, and people stay up all night to welcome her.
There is also a legend about "staying up all night to see the New Year in". This is also the legend that people often hear, that is, because of the Nian monster that comes once a year, every New Year’s Eve, people regard the night when "Nian" wreaks havoc as a hurdle to pass. In order to kill time, the family reunites and talks, praying to spend the night safely. Over time, the custom of staying up all night on New Year's Eve was formed.
It is also said that staying up all night to welcome the New Year can drive away evil plagues and diseases. Legend has it that evil spirits and plague viruses are afraid of lights and fire, so people turn on bright lights and set off firecrackers on New Year's Eve to drive away the evil plagues and diseases that are harmful to people.

What good meaning does staying up all night on New Year’s Eve have?

Staying up all night on New Year's Eve is one of the most important traditional activities during the Chinese New Year, and the custom has a long history. The earliest record can be found in "Fengtuzhi" by Zhou Chu of the Western Jin Dynasty: On New Year's Eve, people give gifts to each other, which is called "gifting the year"; they invite each other to drink and eat, which is called "saying goodbye to the year"; the young and the old drink together and give good wishes, which is called "dividing the year"; everyone stays up all night waiting for dawn, which is called "keeping the year".
"One night connects two years, and the fifth watch divides two days." On New Year's Eve, the whole family gets together, eats the New Year's Eve dinner, lights candles or oil lamps, sits around the stove and chats, waiting for the moment to bid farewell to the old and usher in the new, and stays up all night, symbolizing the driving away of all evil plagues and diseases, and looking forward to a prosperous new year. This custom gradually became popular. In the early Tang Dynasty, Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, wrote a poem called "Shousui": "The cold winter snow is gone, and the warmth comes in the spring breeze." To this day, people still have the habit of staying up on New Year's Eve to welcome the new year.
In ancient times, staying up all night to celebrate the New Year had two meanings: for the elderly, it was to "bid farewell to the old year" and to cherish time; for the young, it was to extend their parents' lives. Since the Han Dynasty, the time when the old year turns to the new year is generally midnight. The "Shou" in "Shousui" means both the nostalgia for the old year that is passing and the hope for the coming New Year.
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