Spring Festival-Pasting the Gate Gods

The Painted Gate Gods on Doors

Spring Festival

Spring Festival is the biggest festival in China; this is the most important festival of the entire year. Chinese people adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1912, but the spring festival is still recorded by the traditional Chinese calendar. Each year the day is different according to the Gregorian calendar. This year, 2010, the first day of the year according to the traditional Chinese calendar is February 14th, but the spring festival normally starts 10-15 days before and ends the 15th day after the first day of the New Year.

Many activities will take place in different cities and regions throughout China, but there are several main events that all Chinese people will do during the Spring Festival. I will tell you about them one by one.

The Traditional Wood Carved Printed Painting

Pasting the Gate Gods
This ancient story originated during the Tang Dynasty (618AD-907AD). Emperor Taizong fell ill, and in his dreams he always heard lots of crying from many ghosts that kept him from sleeping. Two armoured generals stood in front of Emperor’s palace to protect him from the ghosts that tormented him at night. During that night, the Emperor was not visited by the ghosts in his dreams. Because the Emperor did not want the generals to stand at his gate the entire night, he asked painters to draw the figures of two generals on the palace gate and called them gate gods. Gradually common people started to paste these two generals’ figures on their gates to ward off evil spirits and keep their families safe. In some regions of China, people carved the figures of the two generals on a wooden board and printed them each year. This made it easier and faster for everyone in that region to seek the protection of the gate gods. The wood carved printed painting became a traditional handicraft of China. The oldest wood carved printed painting was found as early as the Song Dynasty (960AD-1127AD). The tradition of pasting the gate gods began during the Tang Dynasty and gradually people created the fortune gods also, as a gate god to bless people so they can have a fortuneful new year.

The Word of "Happiness" of 2010, Year of Tiger

Now adays, people still follow this traditions in countryside and in the cities. People paste auspicious words like happiness, fortune, and figures of the animal meant to represent the coming new year. Because this year is the year of Tiger, many people will paste tiger figures on their doors. Another reason for people to   paste gate gods is because people that live in the countryside have bigger gates, and therefore the two doors could be opened and closed at same time, while people that live in apartments in cities have one door, which is very small leaving space for only one painting.