During the Spring Festival the Chinese character Fu, writtenwith a Chinese writing brush on a piece of red color paper, is present almost in every corner of the household. Fu, as opposed to the Chinese character Huo (misfortune), originally meant “Everything goes well”. Later this character in different sizes were put up on the door, the barn, the wardrobe, the cupboard, water pots, chairs and tables, as a wish for the blessings of gods, good weather and good crops in the new year. Red is not only a lucky color for the Chinese, but also wards off the mythical monster Nian who arrived at this time of year to destroy crops and homes. Many people will put up decorative posters with an upsidedown Chinese character Fu on their doors. The pronunciation of “upsidedown” in Chinese is the same as “come” or “arrive”, which means that fortune has arrived or spring, wealth or blessing has arrived. (560)
New words
crescent新月
resemble，類似
ingot鑄鐵
homonym同音異義詞
firecracker爆竹
legendary傳說的
periodically周期性的，定時性的
ward off避開，擋住
suppress鎮壓，抑製
spectacular引人入勝的，壯觀的
eyelid眼皮
gong銅鑼
intoxicate使陶醉
relive重溫，再體驗
kinship家庭關係；親密關係
glutinous rice糯米