Why do we put up window flowers during the Spring Festival? What is the origin of window flowers?
The Chinese New Year is a festive holiday when people bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. There are many Chinese New Year customs, such as pasting Spring Festival couplets, buying New Year's goods, paying New Year's greetings, pasting window flowers, setting off firecrackers, having New Year's Eve dinner and so on. So do you know why we put up window decorations during the Spring Festival? If you want to know more about the 2018 Spring Festival, please pay attention to our Fortune Teller website!Why do we put up window decorations during the Spring Festival?Pasting window decorations is an ancient traditional festival custom. During the Spring Festival, people in many parts of China like to paste various paper-cut window decorations on their windows. Window paper-cuts not only set off the festive atmosphere, but also bring people aesthetic enjoyment, combining decorative, aesthetic and practical functions. Paper-cutting is a very popular folk art that has been loved by people for thousands of years. Because it is mostly pasted on windows, people generally call it "window paper-cutting". Window paper-cuts have rich content and a wide range of themes. Window paper-cuts also include themes such as myths and legends, and opera stories. In addition, images of flowers, birds, insects, fish and the twelve zodiac signs are also very common. Window paper-cuts, with their unique method of generalization and exaggeration, express auspicious events and good wishes vividly, and decorate the festival with splendor and joy.The legend of window decoration during the Spring FestivalAccording to legend, during the seventh year of Yao's reign, a rare but auspicious bird similar to the phoenix called the Luanhu flew to the capital every year to live there. The arrival of the Luanhu frightened the Qilin so much that it ran into the bushes in the swamp and dared not come out; the owl fled to the deserted forest, trembling in fear. From then on, the people lived and worked in peace and contentment. Later, for some unknown reason, the phoenixes and falcons stopped flying here, and the ferocious birds and beasts that had harmed the common people reappeared in the capital, running rampant everywhere. The people are disappointed.At that time, there was a country called Zhezhi. After hearing that the people of Yao revered the phoenix and the falcon had flown away to an unknown place, they took the initiative to present a "double-bright" phoenix as a gift. Because this bird has two pupils in each eye, it is also called "double-eyed". The shape of "Chongming" is very similar to that of a rooster, and its crowing sounds very much like that of a phoenix. People believe that it is an auspicious divine bird. When it was first presented, all its feathers had been shed, but it still flew using its fleshy feathers. Chongming is very ferocious and can chase tigers and fight them bravely. Tigers often become Chongming's delicious food. Since the advent of Chongming, ferocious beasts, demons and monsters no longer dare to harm the people. Therefore, the people revered "Chongming" very much and took good care of it. Every day they ground beautiful jade into fine powder and made it into liquid feed to feed it. "Chongming" sometimes flies over several times a year, and sometimes does not come for several years. In order to attract Chongming to fly frequently to eliminate harm and ward off evil spirits, the common people clean their doors and windows and prepare a place for it to rest. However, after waiting month after month and hoping year after year, the "Double Bright Moon" never came. People were very worried about this, fearing that ferocious beasts and evil spirits would come back to cause trouble. Every household racked their brains to find a solution. Some cast golden birds, others carved wooden chickens and put them on the windows. It was really effective. When ferocious birds and beasts, demons and monsters saw the wooden chickens and golden birds, they thought it was Chongming flying back again, so they were scared out of their wits and fled away quickly and hid themselves. Therefore, during the New Year period when demons and monsters gather to do evil, common people generally hang lifelike golden birds and wooden chickens on their windows. Over time, it gradually evolved into a folk custom. On the first day of the first lunar month every year, every household would carve or paint golden birds and wooden chickens and hang them on the windows. By the Sui and Tang dynasties, paper-cut roosters had replaced the ancient golden birds and wooden chickens and were pasted on windows, which later became window decorations. |
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