贴年画 Pasting New Year Prints

         The custom of pasting New Year Prints originated from the tradition of placing Door Gods on the external doors of houses. With the creation of board carvings, New Year paintings cover a wide range of subjects. The most famous ones are Door Gods, Surplus Year after Year, Three Gods of Blessing, Salary and Longevity, An Abundant Harvest of Crops, Thriving Domestic Animals and Celebrating Spring. Four producing areas of New Year Print are Tɑohuɑwu of Suzhou, Yɑngliuqing of Tianjin, Wuqiɑng of Hebei and Weifang of Shangdong. Now the tradition of pasting New Year paintings is still kept in rural China, while it is seldom followed in cities.

    贴年画的风俗源自于把房子外面的门上贴门神的传统。随着木质雕刻品的出现，年画包含了更广泛的主题，最出名的就是门神，三大神-福神薪神和寿神，庄稼丰收，家畜兴旺，和庆祝春节。年画的四大产地分别是苏州桃花坞，天津杨柳青，河北武强和山东潍坊。现在中国农村仍然保持着贴年画的传统，而在城市里很少有人贴年画。