What's the point of tearing couplets?

The time for tearing couplets varies greatly from place to place. According to the different local folk customs, there are three main types: year-round theory, festival theory and natural shedding theory.

The whole year says: Spring Festival couplets are auspicious and festive, so the old ones need to wait until the next year to be removed and put on the new ones, which means to bid farewell to the old ones and welcome the new ones and have a good year. In this whole year, if the Spring Festival couplets are damaged, they need to be repaired in time.

The festival says: Spring Festival couplets are one of the magic weapons to drive away Nian beasts, and they can be picked after the New Year. According to different local folk customs, some people count the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month as the end of the year, while others count the dragon raising its head in February of the lunar calendar as the end of the year. With the development of the city, some localities and units, for the sake of city appearance and property management, demand to dismantle Spring Festival couplets during or after the Spring Festival holiday.

Natural Fall-off Theory: The so-called natural fall-off means that the Spring Festival couplets fall off naturally when they are hit by wind and rain. Or, when you see the Spring Festival couplets ruined by the wind and rain, just take them off.

antithetical couplet

Also known as antithesis, antithesis, spring stickers, Spring Festival couplets, couplets, Taofu, and couplets (named after the pillars hanging in halls and houses in ancient times), it is a dual literature, which originated from Taofu. Another source is the spring release. The ancients posted the word Yichun more and more at the beginning of spring, and then it gradually developed into Spring Festival couplets, expressing the good wishes of the working people in China to ward off evil spirits and avoid disasters, and to welcome the good fortune.

Couplets are antithetical sentences written on paper, cloth or engraved on bamboo, wood and columns. It is a unique art form of Chinese, concise and profound, neat and even, with the same number of words and the same structure.