The origin of the custom of posting Spring Festival couplets

Spring Festival couplets originated from ancient peach symbols. In the ancient mythology of China, it is said that there is a ghost world, in which there is a mountain, a big peach tree covering three thousand miles, and a golden rooster at the top of the tree. Whenever the golden rooster crows in the morning, the ghost who travels at night must return to the ghost domain. The Gate of Ghost Domain is located in the northeast of Taoshu District, and there are two gods standing by the door, namely shentu and Lei Yu.

If the ghost does something unnatural at night, Shencha and Lei Yu will immediately find it, catch it, tie it with a rope made of Miscanthus, and give it to the tiger. So ghosts all over the world are afraid of tea and stagnation. So people in China carved them into peach trees and put them at the door to ward off evil spirits and prevent harm.

Later, people simply carved the names of Shencha and Lei Yu on the mahogany board, thinking that this could also eliminate disasters. This kind of red board was later called "Fu Tao".

In the Song Dynasty, people began to write couplets on mahogany boards, one for killing evil spirits, the other for expressing good wishes, and the third for decorating the portal for beauty. They also write couplets on red paper symbolizing happiness and auspiciousness, and stick them on both sides of doors and windows during the Spring Festival to express people's good wishes for good luck in the coming year.

During the Spring Festival, people always replace the old ones with the new ones. Wang Anshi's poem "Thousands of households always get rid of old peaches for new ones" is about this.