第82章 福禄寿好运锦鲤

Chinese Lucky Symbols

In Chinese celebrations， whether it is important birthday or traditional festivals， one of the most quintessential elements is the lucky or auspicious symbols. Whether in the design patterns， in traditional art forms， or in the dishes and New Year banquet， they are simply numerous auspicious symbols.

?福禄寿三星

To most Chinese， when it es to lucky symbols， the top three are definitely fu (福)， lu (禄) and shou (寿). They are sometimes called the three Stellar Gods.

①福

Lets start with fu (福) which means fortune in general. During Chinese New Year， we would put up Red Squares with the character fu (福) on them. According to one interesting custom， some people would put their fu (福) character upside down based on a word play. In Chinese when you say the fu (福) character is upside down， it sounds like fortune has arrived.

One little reminder for you though according to tradition， youre actually not supposed to put the upside down fu (福) on your main door or main gate， otherwise youre just keeping the good fortune outside.

In traditional art and design， one rather unlikely animal traditionally associated with fortune is bat. That is because the character for fortune and the character for bat are homophones. Traditional art and design from architecture to clothing， from tapestries to toys， many things were decorated with auspicious bats.

②禄

Then let us move on to lu (禄). In ancient China， the Chinese character lu (禄) referred to salary and ranks. And as a result， lu (禄) is often associated with ones career and wealth. In traditional art， Luxing (禄星)， the god who is in charge of this aspect is often depicted carrying either a ruyi (如意) which is a symbol of authority and higher social status or a pile of golden ingots that make it a wealth symbol.

Again， based on our favorite word play， gourds or hulu (葫芦) are seen as something related to lu (禄) because hulu (葫芦) sounds like hulu (护禄) literally mean protecting lu (禄). So traditionally， gourds were used as charms for scaring away evil spirits and diseases and guarding prosperity.

③寿

And then we have shou (寿) which means longevity. Even nowadays when someone is having their birthday celebration， we would call this person shouxing (寿星)， which was the original name of the stellar god in charge of longevity.

There are many longevity symbols in Chinese culture. Perhaps the one that you see most frequently at birthday parties for an elder person is the peach. Thats because according to the legend， the Queen Mother of the West grows the peaches of immortality in her own orchard， and whoever gets to eat these peaches will live forever.

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