Chinese Class Review / Celebrating Chinese New Year, Writing Couplets

Spring festival·Chinese class

2019 is almost over in a blink of an eye, and we are about to enter the New Year with less than a month! There are a lot of things to do for the New Year, but there is certainly one thing: paste Spring Festival couplets and paste the word "福(Fu)". As one of the important customs of Chinese Spring Festival, how can we not share them with our Au pairs in Chinese class?


The origin of Spring Festival couplets



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Long, long ago, in the east China sea, there was a mountain, called Dushuo mountain, there lived two god generals, one called "Shen an", the other called "Yu Lei". There is a big peach tree on the mountain, covering three thousand miles.

 Besides, there is a golden rooster on the top of the peach tree. Whenever it chirps in the morning, the monster that goes out at night must return to its nest through the peach tree.

 So the jade emperor sent the two gods to guard under the peach tree. If the devil or monster did something harmful to human world ‘Shen an’ and ‘Yu Lei" would immediately find it and catch it.


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From then on, all the devils are afraid of "Shen An" and "Yu Lei", so people use peach wood carved into their appearance, put in their front door, to scare away evil. Later on, people simply engraved on the peach board "Shen an" and "Yu Lei" the name itself, and believe it can do the same thing. This peach board was later called the "peach charm".

One New Year's eve in 964, MengCchang, the king of the state of Houshu, who known as unconventional, had a sudden idea. These two sentences are "新年纳余庆,嘉节号长春 " From this on, not only to replace the "Shen an" and "Yu lei", to ward off evil spirits, but also added the blessing, wish, it is said that this is the earliest Chinese Spring Festival couplets.


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The word "spring couplets" appeared in the early Ming dynasty. It is said that the emperor Zhu Yuan Zhang like pomp and bustle, also like the idea of Taofu, so want it to be promoted. An imperial decree was issued, requiring every household to write couplets in red paper and paste them on the door frames to welcome the New Year.

On the morning of the first day of the New Year, Zhu Yuanzhang made a tour of the Spring Festival couplets from door to door. Every time he saw a well-written Spring Festival couplet, he was very happy and make big compliment .




The origin of pasting "Fu"




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According to legend, the wind of pasting "Fu" began when Jiang Taigong became a god. The immortals were properly assigned, But he’s ugly, vulgar wife of Jiang Taigong came to beg for the god position. In desperation, Jiang had to nameher "the god of poverty" and said to her, "where there is happiness, you cannot go." From then on, every Chinese New Year paste the word fu, is to tell the poor god, here is a blessed place, you must not come in. The word "Fu" is a symbol of getting rid of poverty and pursuing happiness.



Chinese class


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The Spring Festival is a time to get rid of the old and make new arrangements. It is also an important traditional custom in China. Pasting Spring Festival couplets is an important custom of this festival, and it also include the expectation of people for the New Year.

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I have to say, everyone was doing a great job!



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To get a deeper understanding of a country, it's a good idea to start with its traditions. The Spring Festival couplets express the wish of Chinese people to ward off evil spirits and disasters and good fortune. The Au pair also hope to be safe and happy with their family in the New Year.




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