What's the meaning of cutting window grilles?

The meaning of cutting window grilles varies with the content, as follows:

Dolls, gourds and lotus flowers symbolize many children and many blessings; Auspicious patterns such as dragons, phoenixes, tigers and mice symbolize auspiciousness; Birds, livestock, melons, fruits, fish and insects symbolize a bumper harvest; Farming, spinning, herding sheep and raising chickens symbolize happiness in life.

Stick grilles is an ancient festival custom, spreading the myth of destroying cakes and attacking palaces. During the Spring Festival, people in many places in China like to stick various paper-cut window grilles on their windows. Window grilles not only set off the festive atmosphere, but also entrusted people with the desire to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, and also brought people the enjoyment of beauty, integrating decoration, appreciation and practicality.

The origin of window grilles

Window grilles originated from ice flowers, destroyed cakes and sedan chairs and attacked the palace, so they were also called "ribbon-cutting" in ancient times. After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the custom of cutting and pasting window grilles in the Spring Festival gradually became popular, and people used paper-cutting to express the joy of celebrating the return of spring to the earth. Traditionally, paper and samples are not drawn in advance when cutting window grilles, because window grilles are sketches in paper-cutting and improvisation, so they are cut casually.

However, what you cut should be auspicious, such as "Magpie on Plum Blossoms", "Two Dragons Playing with Beads", "Fish in the Year of Lotus" and "Hundred Pomegranates in bloom". Various patterns of flowers, birds, fish and insects express the good hopes of ordinary people for their future life.