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Traditionally speaking, there are three things to do during the Chinese New Year:Posting Spring Festival couplets, setting off firecrackers and eating New Year\’s Eve dinner.

Most firecrackers are now banned due to various reasons, but there is a kind of electronic firecracker that is very popular, and many people return to the New Year’s Eve dinner due to the epidemic. We can’t go home, but the New Year’s Eve dinner has also undergone new changes in recent years. However, we will talk about firecrackers and New Year’s Eve dinner in the next article. First, let’s talk about posting Spring Festival couplets.

China is a country of etiquette, with a lot of emphasis on traditional cultural customs. The Spring Festival is one of the most important festivals in China, so the customs of the Spring Festival are also very particular. Posting Spring Festival couplets , posting blessing characters and posting door gods are one of them.

1. How to post Spring Festival couplets?

Posting Spring Festival couplets means joy, blessing, and moreUse red to represent joy.

Where did the Spring Festival couplets come from?

According to historical records, the earliest can be traced back to the Hou Shu era more than 1,000 years ago, and is recorded in many documents. The Spring Festival couplets are derived from the ancient \” It evolved from \”Peach Talisman\”.

In the Song Dynasty, people often wrote couplets on peach boards. On the one hand, peach wood had the meaning of protecting the house and warding off evil spirits. On the other hand, it was also used to decorate the door.

The Song Dynasty poet Wang Anshi said in a poem:

The sound of firecrackers marks the end of the year, and the spring breeze brings warmth to Tusu.

Qianmen Every day of the year, thousands of households always replace old talismans with new peaches.

And this \”old symbol\” is the \”Peach Talisman\”, which is also considered to be the ancient Spring Festival couplets.

So, how should Spring Festival couplets be posted?

In the past, because many people didn’t understand it well, they often posted it incorrectly and even made jokes.

First of all, Spring Festival couplets are also called couplets, which are composed of a pair of neatly paired sentences, usually divided into upper and lower lines. Most of the ways to distinguish the upper line and the lower line can be distinguished by the tone.Generally, the last character of the upper line is usually three. There are three tones and four tones, while the last word in the second line mostly has one and two tones.

For example, this year is the Year of the Tiger, and the Spring Festival couplets about the Year of the Tiger are:

Thousands of brocades have been displayed in the Year of the Tiger, and in the Year of the Tiger, we will climb the Hundred Steps Tower again.

The tiger chases the sun and the moon and dances in the majestic wind, and the tiger leaps over the mountains and rivers.

The golden tiger presents auspiciousness to Qin Zhizhi, and the jade tiger presents auspiciousness and grandeur.

These are in line with the above distinction.

The second one is about the left and right issue of posting Spring Festival couplets.

Based on the position of people facing the door, ancient people usually wrote from right to left, so the horizontal characters were often From right to left, the corresponding right side is usually pasted with a couplet, and the left side is usually pasted with a lower couplet. However, with the development of the times, many families now no longer write Spring Festival couplets freshly, but buy ready-made ones. At this time, in order to conform to the writing habits of modern people, the order of the characters in the horizontal batch has also changed from left to right. At this time, the Spring Festival couplets are pasted on the left side and the lower couplets are pasted on the right side.

In other words, how to post the couplets depends on the order of the horizontal batch. If the horizontal batch is from right to left, then the Spring Festival couplets should be posted from top left to right; If it goes from left to right, then it should be posted from top right to left, so it won\’t make a joke.

2. The importance of pasting blessing characters and door gods

Except In addition to pasting Spring Festival couplets, people also pay attention to pasting the word \”Fu\”.

Many people insist on pasting the word \”福\” upside down, which means \”luck arrives\”, but in factNot all \”福\” characters can be pasted upside down. Usually, the word \”福\” on the main entrance of the door must be pasted upright. BecauseThe gate symbolizes the entrance of a family. Only the front door can show its dignity, and it also means \”welcoming blessings into the door\”. The characters \”福\” on other doors can be pasted upside down, which means \”luck has arrived\”.

In some places, people still retain the custom of sticking to the door god. The door god is a symbol of righteousness and force, and often has the implication of warding off evil and driving away evil.

The original door gods were Shen Tu and Yu Lei. It is said that in ancient Chinese mythology, Shen Tu and Yu Lei were people who specialized in catching ghosts. But later in the Tang Dynasty, it is said that Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty was ill once. He always felt that ghosts were calling outside the door and could not rest peacefully all night, so he ordered two generals Qin Qiong and Yuchi Gong to guard the sides. As a result, he slept very peacefully the next day. . Later, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty ordered people to draw the images of these two generals and paste them on the door, and this custom began to spread among the people.

In the Tang Dynasty, the left was respected. In history, captain Chi Gong’s contribution was greater than that of Qin Qiong. Therefore, when attaching the door god, Yu Chigong is on the left, while Qin Qiong is on the right. The two goalkeepers face each other.

3. When will it be posted?

Generally speaking, it is traditional to post in the morning of New Year’s Eve, that is, before 12 noon on New Year’s Eve. Before pasting, tear off the old Spring Festival couplets instead of covering them directly.

However, with the development of the times, many annual customs have gradually been diluted. However, the Spring Festival couplets are generally retained.

Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve. Are your Spring Festival couplets ready?