Wen Liu Wenyu (Zhengzhou, Henan).
I don't know when the "handmade" things have returned to the momentum: when strolling through the streets and alleys, "handmade steamed buns", "handmade braised noodles", "handmade dumplings" and other signboards are overwhelming, and suddenly people's memories are pulled back to that era full of "handmade" colors.
Today, I mainly want to write a "handmade Spring Festival couplet" to give the Year of the Dragon a full sense of ceremony. Because every Spring Festival, no matter the north and south of the river, every household in rural and urban areas should paste the jubilant Spring Festival couplets on the door, so as to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new and increase the festive atmosphere of the festival.
Regarding the Spring Festival couplets, I first checked the relevant information on the Internet: Legend has it that the Spring Festival couplets originated from the peach charm, and the peach charm had appeared as early as the pre-Qin period. The peach charm is six inches long and three inches wide, and the images of the two gods of "Shendi" and "Yu Lei" that the folk believe in are painted on the peach wood board, or the names of the two gods are written on the paper, hanged, embellished or posted on the door leaf, praying that it can play a beautiful role in warding off evil spirits and eliminating disasters and welcoming auspicious blessings.
Spring Festival couplets are called differently due to different local customs: some are called "spring stickers", "door pairs", and some are called "couplets". The appearance of the term "Spring Alliance" was in the Ming Dynasty, and it is said that when Taizu made the capital of Nanjing, he ordered that on Chinese New Year's Eve, the doors of each public secretary's house should be pasted. Since then, the Spring Festival couplets have become a kind of wisdom and cultural custom of our people, which has been passed down to the present. The Spring Festival couplets depict a beautiful image with neat, concise and exquisite words, expressing people's expectations for a better life, and are a unique literary and artistic form in China.
In my memory, during the Spring Festival in the sixties and seventies, until the end of the eighties, the Spring Festival couplets posted by every household during the Chinese New Year were written by lovers. Years ago, I went to the Xinhua bookstore in the town to wholesale a roll of big red paper, after going home, according to the number of doors, count several pieces, and then fold the red paper, one by one with a knife carefully divided, if it is a door couplet, because the paper is small, but also to paste the cut paper, after the preliminary work is prepared, the good people who write with the brush in the village come to write the pen. As long as the small yard and the place that can be posted in the house should be written, as large as all the doors, as small as "the trees are thriving, the clothes are full of boxes, the body is healthy, the water is full of tanks, the food is full of hoards, the trough is thriving, and the people who go out to see the joy" and even the frame car used for farm work should also write a picture of "traveling thousands of miles in a day, walking eight hundred at night" and so on, and the process of writing Spring Festival couplets wholeheartedly is completely a selfless enjoyment.
After the 90s, the Spring Festival couplets printed by the machine gradually became common, although the trouble of writing the Spring Festival couplets was saved, but the New Year's flavor that penetrated into it also faded a lot. One year on the twenty-seventh day of the lunar month, I met a seller of Spring Festival couplets on the street, one of the old men asked if there was any handwritten Spring Festival couplets, and when he heard the answer, "No, now they are all printed", the old man sighed and left very disappointed.
In fact, as a post-60s generation, I have always had a soft spot for handwriting couplets.
On the twenty-fifth day of this year's lunar month (it happens to be the beginning of spring of the twenty-four solar terms), on this day, I cleaned a few rooms on the fifth floor of my house, vacated three major painting and calligraphy rooms, and continued to catch up with the fashion this year, prepared pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and began to have a "handmade Spring Festival couplet".
After the preliminary work was prepared, the hands were cleaned, and the Spring Festival couplets were written.
The custom of sticking Spring Festival couplets has continued for hundreds of years and has become a unique cultural symbol of the Chinese nation. No matter how the times change, this traditional custom of "sticking Spring Festival couplets for the New Year" has always maintained strong national characteristics and cultural connotations.
In the new year, let us "handwrite Spring Festival couplets" together, welcome the arrival of the Year of the Dragon, sincerely wish the motherland prosperity, and also pray for the happiness and health of the people in their hometown!