Lunar New Year Decorations: How to Decorate Your Home

Lunar New Year decorations at Chinese homes begin at least ten days before the New Year, and a few decorations happen on the New Year’s Eve. The red colour and lucky envelopes are unavoidable while purchasing or making the decorations at homes. Chinese families also include several other elements from lanterns to flowers to paintings to decorate their spaces after observing and following the spring cleaning traditions.

Here are a few ways you can decorate your space before the Chinese New Year’s eve.

Chinese Red Lanterns to Drive Away Bad Luck

Chinese lanterns are a major part of Lunar New Year decorations. They are used in important festivals like the Spring Festival as well as the Mid-Autumn Festival. Chinese people hang lanterns on doors of their homes, office buildings, and trees in the streets. They believe that hanging lanterns on the door drives away bad luck.

Door Couplets to Wish Good for the New Year

Chinese families often write down good wishes for the coming Chinese New Year on the couplets and place them on the doors. Lunar New Year wishes are mostly posted as couplets because they believe that even numbers are associated with good luck and prosperity for the coming year. Couplets are brush works of Chinese calligraphy in black ink drawn on red papers.

Paper Cuttings to Invite Luck and Happiness

Paper cutting is the art of cutting out designs from paper - be it any colour. Although all the colours of cut-outs are used for Lunar New Year decorations, red is the commonly used colour. People usually glue the cut-outs on to a surface with transparency or contrasting backing. Most of the Chinese family make sure that they paste red paper cuttings on entrance doors.

New Year Paintings as Greetings

Chinese families paste New Year paintings on walls and doors, and they mostly get those from famous bazaars. Pasting paintings of plants, legendary figures, or new year themes symbolise greeting the guests. Paintings are central to Lunar New Year decorations, and many of them are known for their bright colours, and they represent different Gods. People place most of such paintings next to each other.

Hanging Fu Characters Upside Down

The practice of hanging Fu characters is similar to pasting couplets, as they call for good fortune and luck during the Chinese New Year. People deliberately hang these characters upside-down as per their beliefs - posting the characters upside means “pouring out” good fortune, according to them.

Keeping Blooming Flowers at Your Space

The Lunar New Year, also known as Spring Festival, marks the start of the spring season. Therefore, people decorate their homes using blooming flowers, which symbolises the coming of spring and the commencement of a merrier year. The common plants used as per Chinese beliefs are blossoms, peach blossoms, peonies, orchids, etc. Branches of plum are used for decorating indoor spaces, and flowers that bloom precisely on the Lunar New Year day are considered lucky.

Hanging Chinese Knots

As per the Chinese culture, knots have a history for being an integral part of the traditions. Historians claim that different cultures use different kinds of knots to convey messages. The times have changed, and now lovers give knots to show their commitment to the significant other. Chinese knots are also part of decorations for Chinese New Year in households.

Banners and Scrolls

People position scrolls and banners on walls of their homes and business buildings as the Chinese New Year approaches. The scrolls usually have characters that range from good fortune to prosperity to good health. Chinese families also concentrate on making good luck banners to hang the entrance of their homes.

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