The origin of the custom of posting couplets during the Spring Festival

The origin of Spring Festival couplets should also start from Fu Tao. According to ancient legend, there is a big peach tree in Dushuo Mountain in the East China Sea. There is a tea tree and a gloomy Er Shen and Er Shen under the peach tree. In case of trouble, they will tie it up and feed it to the tiger. Later, during the Spring Festival in China, in order to drive away ghosts, they drew these two statues on the mahogany board, which is Fu Tao.

Later, the peach symbol was standardized and evolved into a rectangular mahogany board with a width of six inches and three inches, which was used to hang on both sides of the gate. Or write spring poems, or book prayers, especially when Dan is old. "If painting idols is mainly to ward off ghosts and evil spirits, then writing spring poems is mainly to pray for good luck. After several evolutions, this has formed two major veins: door gods, New Year pictures, spring stickers and Spring Festival couplets.

The folk custom of posting Spring Festival couplets in China began in the Song Dynasty and prevailed in the Ming Dynasty. Another source of Spring Festival couplets is spring stickers. The ancients posted the word "Yichun" more and more at the beginning of spring, and then it gradually developed into Spring Festival couplets, expressing the good wishes of the working people in China to ward off evil spirits and avoid disasters and welcome good luck.

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The color of couplets is related to local folk customs. What you can usually see is red, which means welcome. In some places, there are white, yellow, purple, green and blue. In some places, white represents missing relatives who have just passed away.

Temples generally use yellow paper, and old people die at home. Younger generations generally don't stick red Spring Festival couplets for three years from that year, white, green and Huang San colors for the first year, green paper for the second year, yellow paper for the third year, and red paper for the fourth year after the mourning period expires. Therefore, the couplets of Bai, Lv and Huang San are commonly called "filial piety couplets", "filial piety couplets" or "Ding Youlian".

Some places put up yellow couplets in the first year, blue couplets in the second year and green couplets in the third year. Some places simply don't post couplets for three years to express their grief, so it is necessary to post couplets during the Spring Festival.