What is the use of New Year pictures?

New Year picture

New Year pictures are a kind of Chinese paintings. It is often used to post posts and decorate the environment during the New Year, which means auspicious and festive New Year, hence the name. Traditional folk New Year pictures are mostly made of wood watermarks. The main producing areas are Yangliuqing in Tianjin, Taohuawu in Suzhou and Weifang in Shandong. There are "Moon Brand" New Year pictures in Shanghai, as well as in Sichuan, Fujian, Shanxi, Hebei and even Zhejiang. The old version of New Year pictures has different names because of different frame sizes and processing methods. The whole painting is called "Palace Tip", three pieces of paper are called "Three Talents" and many detailed processes are called "Painting Palace Tip" and "Painting Three Talents". The colors of gold powder coating are called "Golden Palace Tip" and "Golden Tricks". Products before June are called "green edition", and products after July and August are called "autumn edition".

The appellations of New Year pictures vary greatly from place to place, such as "Draw a picture" and "Protect a picture" in Beijing, "Draw a picture" in Suzhou, "Flower Paper" in Zhejiang, "Divine Symbol" in Fujian and "Doufang" in Sichuan. Today, New Year pictures are gradually called "New Year pictures".

New Year pictures are a folk craft for Chinese people to pray for good luck and welcome the New Year, and it is also a folk art expression that carries people's yearning for a better future. Historically, people called New Year pictures "paper paintings", called "painting stickers" in the Song Dynasty and "painting" in the Qing Dynasty. Until the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, scholar Li Guangting wrote in his article: "It is a child's ear to paste New Year pictures after sweeping the house." New Year pictures got their name from this.