The east wind welcomes the new year

The auspicious snow heralds a good harvest

The spring grass is blooming in the garden

The fragrance of flowers is everywhere

The east wind blows thousands of mountains green

The spring rain brings new things to everything

The mountains are leveled and the roads are paved

A grand bridge is built across the rivers

The mountains are green and the water is beautiful The scenery is good

Life is prosperous and joyful

New Year's Eve refers to the night of the last day of the twelfth lunar month every year, which is connected with the Spring Festival (the first day of the first lunar month). The word "Chu" in "New Year's Eve" means "to go; to change; to change". The meaning of New Year's Eve is "the end of the month and the end of the year." People have to get rid of the old and replace the old with the new. means, it is the last night of the whole year in the lunar calendar. Therefore, the activities during this period are centered around eliminating the old and bringing in the new, eliminating disasters and praying for blessings.

During the Zhou and Qin Dynasties, at the end of each year, the palace would hold a "Da Nuo" ceremony to beat the drums to drive away the ghosts of plague and disaster, which was called "Zhuchu", and later also called the day before New Year's Eve. It is the Little New Year's Eve, that is, the Little New Year's Eve; New Year's Eve is the Great New Year's Eve, that is, the New Year's Eve.

There is a custom of sticking to the door god during the Chinese New Year in various parts of our country. The original door god was carved into a human form of mahogany wood and hung next to the person. Later, the door god was painted as a portrait and posted on the door. The legendary brothers Shen Tu and Yu Lei specialize in controlling ghosts. With them guarding the door, evil spirits big and small dare not come in to cause harm. After the Tang Dynasty, there were paintings of the fierce generals Qin Qiong and Yuchi Jingde as door gods, and there were also paintings of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei as door gods. There is one door-god statue on the left and right. Later generations often painted a pair of door-gods as civil and military. There are three types of door gods: the first type is the "door god", which is usually posted on the car door or the entire door. It is about four or five feet high and two or three feet wide. The second type is the "street door god", which is usually posted on the small street door. It is about two feet high and one foot wide. These two door gods are two gods, one with a black face and one with a white face. White left and black right, white good and easy, black ferocious and evil, each holding a yue. The third category is the "house door god", which is slightly smaller and more limited than the street door god. It also has two gods, black and white, but there are also two gods, black and white, who are seated. The most common thing on the door of the house is a picture of "Qilin delivering his son", two dolls painted with powder and grease and combed with crowns of princes, each riding a Qilin. This kind of door god was supposed to be posted on the door of the newly married house to bring good luck, and later it became a New Year decoration on ordinary street doors.

Spring couplets, also known as "door pairs" and "spring posts", are a type of couplets. They are named because they are posted during the Spring Festival. One source of Spring Festival couplets is Taofu. At first, people carved human figures in peach wood and hung them by the door to ward off evil spirits. Later, they painted the image of the door god on the peach wood, and then simplified it to inscribing the name of the door god on the peach wood board. Another source of Spring Festival couplets is spring stickers. The ancients often posted the word "Yichun" on the Beginning of Spring, which later developed into Spring Festival couplets. The real popularity of Spring Festival couplets began in the Ming Dynasty, related to Zhu Yuanzhang's advocacy. According to the "Miscellaneous Theory of Hairpin Cloud Tower" written by Chen Shanggu of the Qing Dynasty, one year when Zhu Yuanzhang was preparing to celebrate the New Year, he ordered that a Spring Festival couplet be posted on the door of every house to celebrate. Originally the Spring Festival couplets were inscribed on peach boards, but later they were rewritten on paper. The color of peach wood is red, and red has the meaning of good luck and warding off evil spirits, so Spring Festival couplets are mostly written on red paper. However, the temple uses yellow paper, and the mourning system (when mourning is not completed) uses white, green, and yellow colors. White paper is used in the first year, green paper in the second year, yellow paper in the third year, and red paper is used after the fourth year of mourning. Paper. Because the Manchu people were still white, the Qing court Spring Couplets used white paper, with blue edges wrapped on the outside and red stripes on the inside.

These all have folk custom functions of praying for blessings and decorating residences. New Year pictures are an ancient folk art in my country. They reflect the customs and beliefs of the people and express people's hopes for the future. New Year pictures, like Spring Festival couplets, originated from the "door god". Spring couplets developed from the names of Shen Tu and Yu Lei to text, while New Year pictures still developed along the direction of painting. With the rise of woodblock printing, the content of New Year pictures is no longer limited to door gods, but gradually invites the God of Wealth into the home, and then in some New Year painting workshops, "Three Stars of Fortune, Luxury and Longevity", "Blessings from Heavenly Officials", " Colorful New Year pictures such as "A bumper harvest", "Prosperous livestock", "Welcome the Spring and receive blessings" can satisfy people's good wishes of celebrating the good year.

Because Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty advocated posting Spring Festival couplets during the Spring Festival, New Year paintings became popular due to his influence. There are three important production areas of New Year paintings in the country: Taohuawu in Suzhou, Yangliuqing in Tianjin and Weifang in Shandong, forming the three major schools of New Year paintings in my country. In the early years of the Republic of China, Shanghai Zheng Mantuo combined the calendar with New Year pictures. This is a new form of New Year pictures. This two-in-one New Year picture later developed into a wall calendar. Hanging Qian is to use auspicious words engraved on red paper with a long ruler and stick it in front of the door to complement the peach charms. Those with figures of the Eight Immortals on them were hung in front of the Buddha. It is mostly used by thousands of households, but less used by aristocratic families. The yellow paper is three inches long and the red paper is more than an inch long. It is a "small hanging thousand" and is used by shops. The earliest hanging Qiandang was made of coins (copper coins). Like New Year's money, it has the effect of suppressing victory.