Myths about Window Cutting

The origin of the Chinese New Year window cuttings

The invention of Chinese paper was in the Western Han Dynasty BC, before which paper-cutting could not have appeared, but at that time, people used thin sheet materials, through the hollowing out of the crafts made of carving, but as early as when there was no paper has been popular, i.e., carving, hollowing out, picking, carving, cutting techniques in the gold foil, leather, silk, and even in the foliage of the cut pattern.

The Warring States period appeared to use leather skeletonization, silver foil skeleton carving, are the same with the paper-cutting, their appearance for the formation of folk paper-cutting laid a certain foundation. After the Song and Yuan, cut and paste window flowers to welcome the spring time from the spring to the Spring Festival, people use paper cutouts to express their joy of celebrating the spring to the earth, which is the origin of the later Spring Festival cut window flowers.

Window flowers is the characteristic art of farming culture, the rural life of the geographical environment, agricultural production characteristics and social customs, also makes this vernacular art has a distinctive Han folk interest and artistic characteristics. In the past, regardless of the north and south, during the Spring Festival, all stickers. Now the South only stick when you get married, the Spring Festival is generally not posted, while the North sticker window is still prevalent.

Window flowers are rich in content, a wide range of subjects. Because most of the buyers of the window flowers are farmers, the window flowers have quite a lot of content to express the life of farmers, such as farming, weaving, fishing, shepherding, feeding pigs, raising chickens and so on. Window decoration with its unique generalization and exaggeration will be auspicious events, good wishes expressed to the fullest, will be decorated with festivals red hot and rich, joyful.

Window is the most widely distributed, the largest number of Han folk paper cutting, the most popular varieties. Divided into north and south style, the south to "exquisite" for the beauty, which is characterized by exquisite and transparent; the north to simple and vivid for the beauty, which is characterized by naive and thick. Other paper-cutting varieties are developed and extended on the basis of window flowers. People in the Spring Festival window decals, as a way to decorate the environment, rendering the atmosphere of the purpose, and to send the old to welcome the new, to receive the blessing of auspicious wishes.