Lunar New Year Couplets
Our daughter, Abigail Zhen, (or Abby, as we call her) is adopted from China, and about this time every year, we enthusiastically wish everyone, “Gong xi fa cai!” It is one of the traditional Chinese greetings of the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, offering blessings of wealth and prosperity to everyone. Of the many ways to celebrate, our favorite tradition is writing new year couplets and hanging them on the door. That and eating lots of spring rolls, dumplings, noodles, steamed fish, and rice cakes. But mostly writing couplets.
Peach Trees and Poetry
Every great culture’s history, myths, and legends somehow intertwine to explain its traditions, and writing Chinese couplets is no exception. Myths tell the story of a giant peach tree that served as a bridge between the spirit world and the human world. If you’ve watched the Disney movie Kung Fu Panda, you’ve seen the Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom carry away Master Oogway to the spirit world on a carpet of its swirling leaves.
Stories tell that long ago, spirits visited the human world at night. They returned by morning, passing through a gate to the spirit world at the base of the giant peach tree. Those who holidayed on earth benignly were welcomed back at peach tree. Those who harmed humans were captured at the gateway by two guards, Shentu and Yulei, who then fed the wayward spirits to tigers. Ghosts, as a rule, have never cared much for termination by tiger when returning to peach-tree portals. Thus, peach trees came to symbolize safety from evil ghosts in Chinese lore.
Following this logic, humans carved couplets, two-line poems, into peach wood planks and hung one plank/line on each side of their doors to drive evil spirits away. Remember, Chinese is written and read vertically, so this makes both poetic and architectural sense.
That was Then, This is Now
Nowadays, people don’t tend to chop down peach trees to carve their couplets. I’m guessing too many splinters. Lunar New Year poems are written in calligraphy, usually on red paper with black ink. English couplets are written in horizontal, stacked-line form. They are hung on doors, on transoms, or in auspicious places in the home, like a hallway or a room where people gather. Sometimes they are sent as notes or hung on a neighbor’s door as a wish or blessing for the coming year.
However they are created or wherever they are hung, couplets are considered part of the essential decorating traditions for the Lunar New Year.
Have a Go!
To write your Chinese couplet, first, pick a theme. Traditionally, Chinese couplets expound upon two subjects: nature and the new year. If you choose to write about nature, then the world is your poetic oyster—as long as you focus on nature’s beauty, not its destructive powers. If you choose to write about the new year, focus on hopes and dreams and find ways to incorporate the usual topics of wealth, fortune, success, growth, luck, blessings from the ancestors, and all good things in surplus. Of course, you always have independent choices, but we’re talking traditions here.
Next, measure your words. This is good advice in any situation, but when writing Chinese couplets, it’s key. The two lines must be of equal length, give or take a word/syllable or two. If writing in Chinese, most lines run between five and seven characters; if writing in other languages, focus on keeping the number of words or syllables relatively equal. There are other specific rules for Chinese tone patterns, but perhaps that can wait for later attempts.
Now to production. The January 21, 2021, NancyProofed blog talks about the power of handwriting, and here is an opportunity to apply that skill. As mentioned earlier, Chinese couplets usually are done in calligraphy, a made-by-hand art form. If you have calligraphy skills, then good on ya, as my Irish grandfather would have said. If not, any longhand will do. Just remember to use black ink or paint on red paper, red being the lucky color.
Celebrate the Year of the Ox
Twelve is the big-deal number this year. There are twelve signs in the Chinese Zodiac that rotate every twelve years, and February 12, 2021, marks the Year of the Ox. People born under each Zodiac sign supposedly share certain qualities. If you were born in an Ox year (2021, 2009, 1997, 1985, 1973, 1961—continue the twelve-year pattern), you are very likely hardworking, smart, reliable, honest, kind, trustworthy, straightforward, and disliking of the spotlight. You prefer to work in the background, letting your work speak for you.
Not an Ox? Find out more here.
Our Wishes for You
Abby (Year of the Dog) and I (Year of the Rooster) wish you “Gong xi fa cai!” this Year of the Ox with a few of our original New Year Chinese couplets.
Snow blankets the dormant grass.
Spring slumbers beneath the white.
Cardinal red craves attention.
How can my eyes resist him?
Good Fortune, enter this home!
Health and happiness to all!
Light the lanterns, dress your best.
Welcome the spring with great joy!
Share your couplets by sending a message on the NancyProofed contact page, and I’ll send you a brand-new Tricky Word Chart.