THE STORY OF NIAN ~ A traditional story of the origin of the Chinese New Year Chinese music. Enter narrator,
villagers and old auntie. Villager 1: Ni hao ma? (How are you?) Villager 2: Wo hen hao. Xie xie. (I’m fine, thank you.) Villager 3: Ah! Jin tian zhen leng a! (Oh, today is such a cold day!) Old Auntie: Nian Kuai lai la, ni zou ba! (Nian is coming soon. You’d better run!) Villagers 1,2, and 3 run
to hide behind house #1. Old
Auntie: Nian Kuai Lai la, ni zou
ba! (Nian is coming soon, you’d better go!) Narrator: On New Year’s Day, an old beggar came to the village, begging for food. The old woman told him to run away from Nian, but he wasn’t afraid. He said he knew how to scare Nian away. When night came, he wore a red cloak and made loud noises with two meat cleavers. Nian was so frightened by the red color and noises that it returned to the ocean. That is why to this day, Chinese people light firecrackers and hang red scrolls on their houses during the New Year. Old Beggar: You leng you e. Lao Po po, xing xing hao ba. (I’m cold and hungry. Old auntie, have mercy on me.) Old Auntie: Nian Lai la, ni zou ba! (Nian is coming, you’d better run!) Old Beggar: Wo bu pa, wo deng ta. (I’m not afraid. I’ll wait for it to come.) Old beggar puts on a red
cloak and hangs red scrolls on the door of house #3. Villagers,
children, and Old Auntie: Guo Nian
La! Guo Nian La! (Nian is gone, the year is gone!) |