AllAsianWeddings.com Tips and Ideas
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. 