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When talking about festivals with a red theme, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? For me, the first festival that comes to my mind is Chinese New Year Festival because people will wear red clothes and places are decorated with red paper cut as well as red envelopes. However, why does it have to be red? and why adults say that wearing red will bring luck and wealth. Today, ACU PAY will answer the questions about the Chinese’s origin, culture, and beliefs in red.
In ancient times, the Chinese preferred red color for the worshiping of the sun, fire, and blood. Since the sun helps plants grow, Fire helps drive out the beast and Blood represents humans. Therefore, red is a sacred symbol of the Chinese people of that era.
In addition, there is a legend that the founder and first emperor of the Han Dynasty (202 – 195 BC) was appointed as the son of the Red Emperor. After that, people turned to worship red, which is a color of power and sacredness.
As for the increasing popularity of the red color of Chinese ancestors, it may start from “Chinese New Year’s Day”. A folk legend says that in ancient times, a monster named “Nian” (年) attacked people and pets in the village on New Year’s Eve. However, this monster has a major weakness which is afraid of the sound of firecrackers and red. As a result, Chinese ancestors wear red clothes and decorate their houses with paper used to place in front of the house, lanterns, as well as red envelopes during Chinese New Year’s Day to drive out demons and evil things.
Although Chinese emperors in the past had a different preference for color, they all liked red as well. It can be noticed from the thousands of buildings and tens of thousands of rooms in the 720,000-square-meter Beijing Forbidden City Palace. The most notable feature is its impressive red walls and gates, as well as its huge red columns and doors.
In addition, during the Ming Dynasty era because it was the Saeju dynasty (朱 means bright red), both political and cultural aspects of the nation were promoted to mainly use red. For example, at Chinese wedding ceremonies, red is the main color of the event, starting from the engagement certificate, wedding dress, bride’s veil, decorations, and lanterns in red because it is believed that red will increase life even more. Therefore, the red culture gradually infiltrated all sides of China, and eventually became a symbol of the Chinese people.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, red was used for books that had already been judged by the Emperor and distributed which is called “Red Edition” (红本). Moreover, there is also a legend that Qin Shi Huang liked to use brush strokes with red ink and mark it on a letter of communication from the city to know whether the book had been diagnosed or not. Later, this method was passed down to Chinese teachers who used only red stationery to correct homework until now.
However, although most of the red colors are used for auspicious events, they are not used continuously on every occasion such as red dresses, red hats, and red shoes are prohibited to wear to the funeral. During the Tang Dynasty, red and yellow became the color of the emperor. Since it is believed to be the color of the sun, which Huang likened to a sun, and “the sky cannot have two suns simultaneously.” Therefore, the villagers were banned from wearing yellow and red clothes. The villagers wore gray, black, or blue and kept red dresses only for auspicious events until that cultural passed from generations to the Chinese in these days.
