How did n years come about?

Nian is not a festival, but an animal. Legend has it that in ancient times, this animal was very fierce. They got together, and when they went out, there were thousands and hundreds. Every winter, people and all kinds of animals suffer wherever they go. It is said that a group of people can eat hundreds of tigers, leopards, bears and dozens of people once a year. In winter, all people should concentrate on fighting Nian, and Nian will disappear without a trace until spring blossoms and the temperature rises. In order to avoid the harm of "Nian", whenever winter comes, people will call back their relatives who went hunting in advance and gather together in groups, and they all live in big mountain caves, with as many as 100 people in each cave. In the process of fighting Nian, people gradually accumulated some experience and found that Nian was fierce and cruel, but it was most afraid of fire and ran at the sight of it. Therefore, once people find that Nianqun is coming, they will quickly light the torches already prepared and cheer with weapons until all Nianqun are driven away. The next day, people living in caves get up early and say hello to each other. If everyone is safe, bow to congratulate each other. Children should kneel down to kowtow to adults and thank them for their kindness to their younger generation. Then gradually formed the custom of bowing and kowtowing to each other on New Year's Day.

After the Yellow Emperor unified the tribes, he led the people to resist all kinds of natural disasters. In order to completely remove the great threat to people in 2000, the Yellow Emperor discussed with Ying Long, Li Mu and other ministers what to do. Some people advocate moving, while others advocate killing. Finally, according to the opinions of the Yellow Emperor, everyone agreed to adopt the method of complete elimination. So when the severe winter came, all tribes organized a team of 100 people to kill the group year. After more than a dozen severe winters, the years are getting less and less, and the years in droves have never appeared again.

However, Nian doesn't want to die like this. It is said that it has become a nine-headed bird again. On New Year's Eve, it flew out and sniffed the delicious meat from every household. When it smells it, bloody saliva will flow out of its mouth. This kind of saliva with snow falls into anyone's yard, and whoever falls into it will be unlucky the next year. Later, it was found that the nine-headed bird was most afraid of burning cypress leaves. So every winter, people collect cypress leaves. On the evening of the 30th, every household lit the cypress leaves, and the smoke rose, scaring the nine-headed birds from flying out again. Since then, burning incense on the night of New Year's Eve has become a custom, which has been passed down to this day.