A person carrying home the harvest — grain stalks bent over a walker's back. One harvest, one year: in a farming kingdom, the year is simply the time it takes to grow food. When Chinese wish each other happy new year, they are literally celebrating a harvest brought home.
A piece of culture
The monster called Year Legend says 年 was a monster that crept from the sea every new year's eve to devour villages. One year an old beggar revealed its weaknesses: the beast feared the color red, bright light, and loud noise. So the villagers pasted red paper on every door, lit lanterns, and threw bamboo on the fire until it cracked like thunder. The monster fled — and never returned. That is why New Year means red couplets on doors, lanterns, and firecrackers: China's biggest festival is a yearly monster-scaring, and "celebrating the year" (过年) literally means "getting past the Year".
Use it in a real word
十年
shínián · sap6 nin4
ten years, a decade — "it takes ten years to grow a tree, a hundred to grow a person," says the proverb