The origin of the custom of posting Spring Festival couplets and door gods

The Chinese folk custom of posting Spring Festival couplets began in the Song Dynasty and flourished in the Ming Dynasty. The real popularity of Spring Festival couplets began in the Ming Dynasty, which is related to the promotion of Zhu Yuanzhang. According to the Qing dynasty's Chen Shanggu's "The Hairpin and the Cloud", one year when Zhu Yuanzhang was preparing for Chinese New Year, he ordered that a pair of Spring Festival couplets should be put on every door to celebrate the occasion.

Originally the spring couplets were inscribed on mahogany boards, but later they were written on paper instead. The color of mahogany is red, and red has the meaning of good luck and avoiding evil, so most of the spring couplets are written on red paper. But the temple with yellow paper, keep system (service filial piety is not yet full) with white, green and yellow colors, the first year with white paper, the second year green paper, the third year yellow paper, the fourth year of mourning full before resuming the use of red paper.

The custom of sticking a door god on the door of a house in the Spring Festival has been passed down for thousands of years. Door god is the old lunar new year on the door of a painting, but also Taoism and folk *** with the beliefs of the guard gateway to the gods, people in the old days will be affixed to the door, to drive away evil spirits, guard the family home, to protect the peace, to help the merit of the descending good fortune, and so on, is one of the most popular protection of the folk god.

Door god of the god of the birth of the day for the first month of the fifteenth day, the folk more in the new spring season, worship the door god and the custom of posting the door of the god of the door at the gate. Posting the door god should be the perspective of the person entering the door, posted on both sides of the door, the painting of the door god to the face of the phase as the correct traditional posting, and vice versa for the folklore of "posting the wrong door god".