| Double Happiness | |
A large Chinese character, Double Happiness, on a red piece of paper or in paper cut is
always put where it must strike the eyes on a young couple's wedding. It has a
story behind it.
In the ancient Tang Dynasty, there was a student who was on the way to the capital to attend the national final examination, in which the top learners would be selected as the ministers in the court. Unfortunately, he fell ill halfway when he passed through a mountain village. Thanks to a herbalist doctor and his daughter, he was taken to their house and treated well. He recovered quickly due to the father and the daughter's good care. Well, when he had to leave, he found it hard to say good-bye to the pretty girl, and so did she. They fell in love. So the girl wrote down the right hand part of an antithetical couplet for the student to match:
"Green trees against the sky in the spring rain while the sky
set off the spring trees in the obscuration."
"Well, I can make it though it is not easy. But you'll have to wait till I have finished the examination." replied the student. The young girl nodded in significance.
In the examination the young man won the first place, who was appreciated by the emperor. Also the winners were interviewed and tested by the emperor. As luck would have it, he was asked by the emperor to finish a couplet, which would need a right part as the answer. The emperor wrote:
"Red flowers dot the land in the breeze's chase while the land colored up in red after the kiss."
The young man realized immediately the right part of the couplet by the girl was the perfect fit to the emperor's couplet, so he took the girl's part as the answer without hesitation. The emperor was delighted to see the matching half of his couplet was so talent and harmonious that he authorized the young man's identity as Minister in the court and allowed him to pay a visit to his hometown first before holding the post. The young man met the girl happily at home and told her the emperor's couplet. They soon got married. For the wedding, the couple DOUBLED the Chinese character, HAPPY, together, on a red piece of paper and put it on the wall to express the happiness for the two events. And from then on, it has been taken on and became a social custom.
A list of articles about Chinese wedding and traditions.
Double Happiness (simplified Chinese: 双喜; traditional Chinese: 雙喜; pinyin: shuāngxǐ; sometimes translated as Double Joy or Double Happy) is a Chinese ornamental design commonly used as a decoration.
It is a ligature "囍" composed of two Chinese characters 喜 (xǐ, 'joy'), compressed to assume the square shape of a standard Chinese character (much like a real character may consist of two parts), and often modified in various ways.
The shuāngxǐ motif often appears on decorative items associated with Chinese New Year celebrations and weddings, the latter of the two is often found all over the wedding ceremony, as well as on gift items given to the bride and groom. The color of the character is usually red, occasionally black.
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art30238.asp
Chinese Character for Happiness
Guest Author - Caroline Baker
There
are a few characters representing the concept of "happy" in the Chinese
language. Each one is slightly different to be placed in context with
what one is speaking about.
For instance, the "happy" that is used often with holidays, lei,
bears resemblance to many drums marching down the street. "Happiness"
is also a matter of the heart and you will sometimes see a symbol of
the heart, detailed to the right here, as part of the character.
The most well known symbol for "happiness" in Chinese is often referred
to as the "double happiness". To begin with, the single symbol for
happiness is the character xi.
Taking those images to heart, that is the type of happiness this
character is talking about. The symmetry of the symbol makes it
"appealing" to the eye, a feature in Chinese writing that is just as
important as the word itself.
When this symbol is doubled, we get the common character of shuang xi
or "double happiness". This character is used during Chinese New Years
as an emblem on signs, posters and red envelopes. Because of the
"double" nature, symbolizing two, it is very common to be part of
wedding or anniversary gifts.