Chinese New Year Decorations
Every year, the horrendous monster (Nián) would terrorize villages. It would eat everything, from mosquitos to human beings. As time went on, the villagers realized that the monster came every 365 days to wreak havoc before disappearing back into the forests.
So the villagers decided that on that day, they would prepare a feast and dine before the ancestors for protection. After years of hiding like this, a youth came up with the idea to use firecrackers and scare the monster away once and for all.
Such goes the legend of the origin of Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival. Because the purpose was to scare off Nian and prevent it from returning, the holiday decorations are typically a bright and loud red.
The color red is much loved by the Chinese in general as it represents happiness and good fortune. Below are some popular decorations used to create festivity for the celebration. Paper Cutting Arts
Paper cutting is a folk craft that can be seen in every season, but are especially prominent during the Spring Festival. Usually seen on windows, the literal translation its name is “window flower.” The craftsmen will painstakingly create these beautiful works and paste them on using sticky rice glue.
These decorations are usually of auspicious symbols and words and made of red paper. Images include fish, peaches, grains, dragons, phoenixes and more. Some, such as fish, are puns for blessings. Others, like dragons and peaches, are symbols from folktales and legends. Grains and related images, on the other hand, represent hopes for a good harvest. More on that later. Fortune
Similarly, Chinese people decorate by hanging up certain words. The most common word is fu, happiness and good fortune. It is written with calligraphy onto a square piece of red paper. These can then be pasted onto walls, doors or windows.
Fu is often incorporated into other decorations, such as paper cuttings and paintings. As a play on words, many like to put fu upside down. The word for “upside down” / Dào is a homophone of “here”. This pun represents that good fortune is coming, or is already here.
This clever play apparently began as an accident though. The story goes that the servants of a prince decorated the manor for the holiday by pasting fu onto all the doors. However, because they were illiterate, one of the fu’s ended upside down. The prince was enraged at this, demanding why they were so careless. Thankfully, one servant was able to think quickly and made up the explanation for the pun. “I’ve always heard people say that Your Highness is full of fortune,” he said. “And now, the fortune really is here.”