Chinese New Year - Door and Window Decorations

The Chinese (Lunar) New Year will fall on February two in the year 2011. It will be the year of the Rabbit as nicely. How do the Chinese prepare for this large vacation, their greatest, most crucial vacation of the year? Cleaning, cooking, buying, and decorating the home are their principal preparations.

The 2 key items folks will use to decorate their residence (right after they have completely cleaned it, of course) is to hang up Chun Lian outdoors of their doors. Given that most Chinese houses only have one particular entrance, they just buy (or acquire on from their bank or employer) one particular set of chun lian. Chun lian are normally referred to as "couplets" by Chinese who speak English. They are rhyming poems comprised of 3 components. The 3 components are every single written on a separate piece of paper. A quick piece is hung above the door and 2 longer sections are hung on either side of the door. The longer pieces have words that are opposites but they will have to also have some rhyme to them. The shorter major piece is a summary of the other 2 pieces. In ancient instances scholars would have competitions to come up with new poems to demonstrate their mastery of the language and their inventive talents.

Some craftsmen will use their calligraphy capabilities to earn revenue by writing these poems on pieces of red paper. THey will normally use black or gold ink. In most big cities in China you can invest in a very simple set of them for beneath $1 US. You can also invest in printed chun lian at most markets prior to the Chinese New Year.

A further Door decoration that Chinese will place up is a square piece of paper with a single Chinese Character 'fu' written on it. Having said that the paper is turned so It really is related to the shape of a diamond and the character is upside down. It really is a inventive play on words. The character will pretty much normally be upside down.

On their windows, Chinese will normally place some red paper cuttings of Chinese characters or factors that are thought of fortunate. This year you will obtain lots of paper cuttings of rabbits Due to the fact It really is going to be the year of the rabbit.

Not everyone puts up these decorations on their doors. normally It really is the younger generations who do not comply with all the old traditions. My Chinese born husband says that lots of vacation traditions and practices have currently changed from when he was a youngster.

Char is an English teacher in China and has spent the final six years living in a compact town teaching English. You stop by my lens about the Chinese New Year and obtain out exactly where to invest in Chinese Celebration Supplies for your Chinese New Year's Celebration.