歡歡喜喜過大年

Spring Festival is a big holiday in China. People go home for family reunions（團圓）.We can enjoy delicious food， wear new clothes， get lucky money and play games. Is there anything else we can do？ Here are two interesting stories about the festival. Let’s read together.

A long time ago there was a monster（怪物）. It came out every year on Spring Festival eve（除夕）.

One Spring Festival eve， the monster came again. The villagers hid（躲藏）in their houses. The monster went to the first house. Suddenly it heard a loud noise（響聲）： BANG！ BANG！ BANG！ The noise scared（嚇壞） the monster. It saw fire. It saw red paper around the door. It ran away.

At temple fairs（廟會）， sugar-coated hawthorns（糖葫蘆） are a popular snack. There is an old story about it.

In the Song Dynasty（宋朝）， one concubine（妃子） of the emperor（皇帝） was sick. She stayed in bed for many days. One day， a doctor said he could cure（治愈） her. The doctor told her to eat hawthorns with hot sugar syrup（糖漿） for the next 15 days. The concubine got better soon. The story quickly spread（傳播）. Some snack sellers put hawthorns（山楂） on bamboo sticks（竹簽） and dipped（蘸） them in hot sugar syrup. They sold them as snacks.