The origin of the Spring Festival now is too old to be traced. It is widely believed that the word ‘Nian'(in Chinese means 'year'), was first the name of a monster beast that started to prey on human being at the night before the beginning of a new year. It had a very big mouth that would swallow many people with one bite. People were very scared. One day, an old man came to their rescue, offering to subdue ‘Nian'. He said to ‘Nian' that ‘I hear that you are quite capable, but can you swallow other beasts on earth instead of people who are by no means of your worthy opponents?' Hence, ‘Nian' did swallow many of the beasts of prey on earth that also harassed people and their domestic animals from time to time. After that, the old man who turned out to be an immoral fairy disappeared riding the beast ‘Nian'. Now that ‘Nian' had gone and other beasts of prey are scared off into the forests, people began to enjoy their life in peace and happiness. Before the old man left, he had told people to put up red paper decorations on their windows and doors at each year's end to scare away ‘Nian' in case it sneaked back again, because red is the color that the beast feared most.
The word “Fu”reposes people’s yearning for a happy life and wishes for a better future. In order to more fully reflect this yearning and wish, some people simply “Fu”word upside down paste, said “Happiness has arrived”, “Happiness has arrived”.
