Spring Festival **customs _ staying up all night**

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I remember that during childhood, on New Year’s Eve, the adults would stay awake all night. \"One night passes and two years come by; at dawn, two new days begin.\" On New Year’s Eve, the whole family would get together, have the New Year’s dinner, light candles or oil lamps, sit around the stove chatting, waiting for the moment to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new one. Staying up all night symbolized driving away all evil illnesses and plagues, as people hoped for a prosperous and fortunate new year. This custom gradually became popular. By the early Tang Dynasty, Emperor Taizong Li Shimin wrote a poem about spending the New Year’s night: “The cold winter snow fades away, and the warm spring breeze arrives.” To this day, people are still accustomed to staying up on New Year’s Eve to welcome the new year