Pasting New Year Prints

貼年畫

The custom of pasting New Year Prints originated from the tradition of placing Door Gods on the external doors of houses. With the creation of board carvings, New Year paintings cover a wide range of subjects. The most famous ones are Door Gods, Surplus Year after Year, Three Gods of Blessing, Salary and Longevity, An Abundant Harvest of Crops, Thriving Domestic Animals and Celebrating Spring. Four producing areas of New Year Print are Taohuawu of Suzhou, Yangliuqing of Tianjin, Wuqiang of Hebei and Weifang of Shangdong. Now the tradition of pasting New Year paintings is still kept in rural China, while it is seldom followed in cities.

貼年畫的風俗源自于把房子外面的門上貼門神的傳統。隨著木質雕刻品的出現，年畫包含了更廣泛的主題，最出名的就是門神，三大神-福神薪神和壽神，莊稼豐收，家畜興旺，和慶祝春節。年畫的四大產地分別是蘇州桃花塢，天津楊柳青，河北武強和山東濰坊。現在中國農村仍然保持著貼年畫的傳統，而在城市里很少有人貼年畫。

新春伊始，第一件事便是貼門神、對聯。 每當大年三十日（或二十九），家家戶戶都紛紛上街購買春聯，有雅興者自己也鋪紙潑墨揮春，將宅子里里外外的門戶裝點一新。春聯也叫門對、春貼、對聯、對子、桃符等。它以工整、對偶、簡潔、精巧的文字描繪時代背景，抒發美好愿望，是中國特有的文學形式。

Pasting Spring Couplets

貼春聯

The Spring Couplet, also called couplet and a pair of antithetical phrases, is a special form of literature in China. The Spring Couplet is composed of two antithetical sentences on both sides of the door and a horizontal scroll bearing an inscription, usually an auspicious phrase, above the gate. The sentence pasting on the right side of the door is called the first line of the couplet and the one on the left the second line. On the eve of the Spring Festival, every household will paste on doors a spring couplet written on red paper to give a happy and prosperous atmosphere of the Festival. In the past, the Chinese usually wrote their own spring couplet with a brush or asked others to do for them, while nowadays, it is common for people to buy the printed spring couplet in the market.

春聯也被稱為和對聯對立的一對短語，在中國是一種特殊的文學形式。春聯是由貼在門口兩側兩組對立的句子組成，在門上面的橫批通常是一個吉祥的短語。貼在門右側的句子被稱作對聯的上聯，左側的為下聯。除夕那天，每家都會在門上貼上紅紙寫的春聯，傳遞出節日喜慶和熱鬧的氣氛。在過去，中國人通常用毛筆自己寫春聯或者請別人寫春聯，而現在，人們普遍在市場上買印刷好的春聯。

Pasting New Year Prints

貼年畫

The custom of pasting New Year Prints originated from the tradition of placing Door Gods on the external doors of houses. With the creation of board carvings, New Year paintings cover a wide range of subjects. The most famous ones are Door Gods, Surplus Year after Year, Three Gods of Blessing, Salary and Longevity, An Abundant Harvest of Crops, Thriving Domestic Animals and Celebrating Spring. Four producing areas of New Year Print are Taohuawu of Suzhou, Yangliuqing of Tianjin, Wuqiang of Hebei and Weifang of Shangdong. Now the tradition of pasting New Year paintings is still kept in rural China, while it is seldom followed in cities.

貼年畫的風俗源自于把房子外面的門上貼門神的傳統。隨著木質雕刻品的出現，年畫包含了更廣泛的主題，最出名的就是門神，三大神-福神薪神和壽神，莊稼豐收，家畜興旺，和慶祝春節。年畫的四大產地分別是蘇州桃花塢，天津楊柳青，河北武強和山東濰坊。現在中國農村仍然保持著貼年畫的傳統，而在城市里很少有人貼年畫。

新春伊始，第一件事便是貼門神、對聯。 每當大年三十日（或二十九），家家戶戶都紛紛上街購買春聯，有雅興者自己也鋪紙潑墨揮春，將宅子里里外外的門戶裝點一新。春聯也叫門對、春貼、對聯、對子、桃符等。它以工整、對偶、簡潔、精巧的文字描繪時代背景，抒發美好愿望，是中國特有的文學形式。

Pasting Spring Couplets

貼春聯

The Spring Couplet, also called couplet and a pair of antithetical phrases, is a special form of literature in China. The Spring Couplet is composed of two antithetical sentences on both sides of the door and a horizontal scroll bearing an inscription, usually an auspicious phrase, above the gate. The sentence pasting on the right side of the door is called the first line of the couplet and the one on the left the second line. On the eve of the Spring Festival, every household will paste on doors a spring couplet written on red paper to give a happy and prosperous atmosphere of the Festival. In the past, the Chinese usually wrote their own spring couplet with a brush or asked others to do for them, while nowadays, it is common for people to buy the printed spring couplet in the market.

春聯也被稱為和對聯對立的一對短語，在中國是一種特殊的文學形式。春聯是由貼在門口兩側兩組對立的句子組成，在門上面的橫批通常是一個吉祥的短語。貼在門右側的句子被稱作對聯的上聯，左側的為下聯。除夕那天，每家都會在門上貼上紅紙寫的春聯，傳遞出節日喜慶和熱鬧的氣氛。在過去，中國人通常用毛筆自己寫春聯或者請別人寫春聯，而現在，人們普遍在市場上買印刷好的春聯。