The tradition of staying up late to see New Year in originated from an interesting folk tale. In ancient China there lived a monster named Year, who was very ferocious. Year always went out from its burrow on New Year’s Eve to devour people. Therefore, on every New Year’s Eve, every household would have supper together. After dinner, no one dared go to sleep and all the family members would sit together, chatting and emboldening each other. Gradually the habit of staying up late on New Year’s Eve is formed. Thus in China, “celebrating the Spring Festival” is also called “passing over the year (guo nian)”. However, now there are less and less people in cities who will stay up late to see New Year in.

守歲的傳統(tǒng)源自于一個有趣的民間故事。在中國古代有一個叫作‘年’的兇猛怪物，在除夕夜‘年’會從地洞里出來吃人。因此在除夕夜，每家每戶都會一起吃晚飯，晚飯以后沒人敢睡覺，所有的家庭成員會坐在一起聊天互相壯膽。逐漸在除夕夜守歲的習慣形成了，因此在中國，慶祝春節(jié)也被叫作過年。然而在城市里很少有人以守歲來歡迎新年。