Spring Festival Couplets 春联

During the Spring Festival of every year, all families in both urban and rural areas traditionally handpick a pair of Spring Festival couplets to paste on the door, adding some joyous atmosphere to the festival. The couplet is composed of two parts, the first line and the second line. There are a few points one should bear in mind when writing or buying the couplets: the numbers of words, parts of speech and sentence structures in the two lines must be the same; the content of the two lines must be related to each other; the tonal patterns and rhythms of the two lines must be the same. In addition, the couplets should be posted vertically, with the first line on the right and the second line on the left.