Why cover a sign with a red cloth?

Covering the signboard with a red cloth can achieve two effects: one is to create suspense, and the other is to keep it festive.

The significance of covering a signboard with a red cloth is, in principle, similar to that of covering a bride with a red head. Both are picking an auspicious day to accomplish something significant, figure a sense of ceremony. In ancient times, the two are also very similar indeed. When the new store opened, the whole plaque with a red cloth, a burst of drums and gongs and firecrackers after a lift, very grand.

Expanded:

Signboards are relatively fixed in form and setup, but the words inscribed on them are variable. For the sake of competition, shopkeepers produce ten figures or even dozens of word signs are also available. Beijing De Ai Tang pharmacy had erected a sky signboard, inscribed "De Ai Tang Shen family ancestral seven generations of pediatrics Zhendan only this one and nowhere else" ****21 words.

Many store owners invite celebrities to inscribe plaques to raise the value of the store. There are also in the store plaque on the article, such as the use of China's traditional form of couplets: "before the end of the first sleeper chickens early to see the sky" (Inn); "business as spring grasses The source of wealth like water springs" (store).

Ming and Qing hotels use couplets, such as Jiujiang Xunyang House with "the world without this wine, the world famous building" couplets. There is also the use of numbers as a name, such as six Biju, double Hesheng. There are also in front of the store hanging carillon and so on.