中國新年在中國最流行的叫法是春節(jié)，因為它的日期一般是在開春之后，又是中國人心中最重要的節(jié)日。這是一篇關于春節(jié)的英語手抄報邊框內(nèi)容花邊圖案，圖片中的主題是春節(jié)的來歷英語介紹以及立春之于24節(jié)氣。
圖片中的英語原文如下：
One legend goes that the beast Nian had a very big mouth that would swallow a great many people with one bite. People were very scared. One day, an old man came to their rescue, offering to subdue Nian. To Nian he said, "I hear say that you are very capable, but can you swallow the other beasts of Py on earth instead of people who are by no means of your worthy opponents?" So, swallow it did many of the beasts of Py on earth that also harassed people and their domestic animals from time to time.
After that, the old man disappeared riding the beast Nian. He turned out to be an immortal god. Now that Nian is gone and other beasts of Py are also scared into forests, people begin to enjoy their peaceful life. 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 the beast feared the most.
【From then on, the tradition of observing the conquest of Nian is carried on from generation to generation. The term "Guo Nian", which may mean "Survive the Nian" becomes today "Celebrate the (New) Year" as the word "guo" in Chinese having both the meaning of "pass-over" and "observe". The custom of putting up red paper and firing fire-crackers to scare away Nian should it have a chance to run loose is still around. However, people today have long forgotten why they are doing all this, except that they feel the color and the sound add to the excitement of the celebration. 】
Beginning of Spring (the first of the twenty-four terms in coordination with the changes of Nature). Its origin is too old to be traced. Several explanations are hanging around. All agree, however, that the word Nian, which in modern Chinese solely means "year", was originally the name of a monster beast that started to Py on people the night before the beginning of a new year (Do not lose track here: we are talking about the new year in terms of the Chinese calendar).
