"Chun Lian" or couplets

Clarice asked if red represent luck? I hope you can find your answer in today post. :)

Red can represent luck, happiness and joy but red can meant fire and power too. Legend had it that "Nian" a monster would attacked the villages during the spring festival (also known as Chinese New Year), but "Nian" is afraid of loud noises and the colour red. So the villagers frighten the monsters away by lighting firecrackers and pasting red papers all over the villages every spring.

Today the red papers comes with wordings and known as "Chun Lian" or couplets.

Couplets are always red and contained Chinese good luck sayings written on them. Pasting red couplets has been an important part of the Chinese New Year's celebration since ancient times.

The wordings are alway written in gold colour. They are usually pasted in the kitchens or on doors or door frames. But nowadays people pasted them all over the house. I was taught by my late traditional mom that the right wordings had to be placed in the correct position.

These are my old couplets . We need to change new couplets every chinese new year.

The above couplet reads "Zhao Cai Jing Bao" which means usher in the wealth and riches. This couplet can be pasted in the kitchen or on doors.

The above read "chang man" which means always full. So this is pasted on rice pot so that the pot will forever be full of rice and we wont go hungry.