Chinese New Year banner or 春聯 (春联/chūnlián) are an essential part of the New Year celebration.

When we lived in Taiwan, as soon as Chinese New Year drew near, stores would be taken over by them. Literally an entire aisle would be dedicated to selling Chinese New Year banners.

Below are the origin of the banners, the different popular auspicious blessings, their meanings and free banner printables for you and your kiddos to make your own!

This is a wonderful way to not only learn about the culture but also get some fun hands on purposeful writing practice in.

Origin of Chinese New Year Banner/春聯

The legend goes that every year the 年 (nián/year) monster would pillage the villages.

The villagers were unable to defend themselves and lived in fear until one year when an old beggar man taught the villagers how to ward off the monster with red banners, fire crackers and noise from chopping pork for dumpling filling.

Nowadays people put up banners with auspicious blessings, mostly surrounding topics of wealth, good fortune and health, to celebrate Chinese New Year.

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Popular Blessings Written on Chinese New Year Banner

There are two main types of banners hung up during Chinese New Year. One is a diamond shape with one character written on it, usually 福 (fú/fortune) or 春 (chūn/Spring). The other is longer banner with either four or more Chinese characters of auspicious blessings written on it.

The diamond shaped banners are oftentimes turned upside down to symbolize wishes of good fortune (福/fú) and Spring (春/chūn) arriving early. Since the Chinese character for inverted (倒/dào) is the same as pouring forth (倒/dào), these smaller banners are put up upside down to symbolize blessings pouring into the home or business. You can find these hung up on doors or on walls.

Here are some of the most popular Lunar New Year blessings or 吉祥話 (吉祥话/jí xiáng huà), their meanings and pronunciations. Sometimes these are also referred to as spring couplets. Most are included in the free printables I created (scroll down below for print info):

• • 恭喜發財/恭喜发财/gōng xǐ fā cái: wishes for good fortune

• • 吉祥如意/jí xiáng rú yì: good luck

• • 五福臨門/五福临门/wǔ fú lín mén: five blessings come upon your door/home

• • 萬事如意/万事如意/wàn shì rú yì: all things go as you wish

• • 新年快樂/新年快乐/xīn nián kuài lè: happy New Year

• • 年年有餘/年年有余/nián nián yǒu yú: every year you’ll be blessed with abundance (have leftover)

Due to the Chinese Zodiac, every Chinese New Year is represented by a different animal. As a result, there are special blessings centering around a specific animal each year. I’ve included two of these banners in my printables along with popular spring couplets.

 

Free Chinese New Year Banner Printables

To make life easier for you, I created Chinese New Year banner printables for you and your kids to have fun learning Chinese characters and celebrating the Lunar New Year. All you need to do is to print them out (I used red card stock), cut them and let the kids paint, color or glitter glue away!

My daughter and my student love to paint so I set out some washable black paint for them to color in the characters. It’s also common to write blessings in auspicious gold color so give that a try too! I’ve also seen nature loving families use mud to write!

I created two versions of the banners, both versions are available in traditional and simplified Chinese.

Some banners are with smaller characters (two banners on one page) and one that’s larger (two pages create one large banner). The larger one is closer to normal sized banners. There are also four long banners and four square banners included.

I’ve also included two toddler friendly square banners. You can use either dot markers or gold dot stickers to let them be a part of the fun! This is a great activity for developing fine motor skills and hand eye coordination.

 

Printable Tips

The smaller sized banners are more suitable for older kids. With younger kids, I suggest letting them color the larger banners’ characters with markers, colored pencils, glitter glue pen or black/gold paint.

When I first created these banners, my daughter was three at the time had a harder time painting the smaller ones. But my student who is six had no problem painting them.

Christian Chinese New Year Banner

I also created Christian versions of these banners. Many believers in Chinese speaking countries will purchase banners with verses or Biblical truths and place these blessings around their door frames, or on the walls and doors of their home.

The Christian versions (in traditional and simplified) include four smaller long banners, one larger long banner and one square banner with the word 恩 (Ēn/grace).

Here are the blessings that are written on the Christian Chinese New Year banners including the English definition and pronunciation:

• • 主恩滿溢/主恩满溢/zhǔ ēn mǎn yì: grace of God overflow

• • 神恩無限/神恩无限/shén ēn wú xiàn: no limit to the grace of God

• • 十架之光/shí jià zhī guāng: light of the Cross

• • 以馬內利/以马内利/ Yǐ mǎ nèi lì: Emmanuel

Hanging The Banners

My daughter insisted putting up these banners on our door herself since she is currently obsessed with tape (praying for Scotch to sponsor my blog, anyone with connections? :P).

Children love seeing their work displayed at home, it gives them a sense a pride not to mention helps create a Chinese rich environment at home for young language learners.

Both girls also had fun seeing pictures of how 春聯 (春联/chūnlián/banners) are put up around houses in Chinese speaking countries. Here’s an example below for you to show your kiddos to let them see how they’re participating in an ancient tradition.