I would like to begin by wishing all of you readers a Happy New Year, and as a Chinese, I would be delighted to share with you our New Year culture. Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival, is calculated according to the lunar calendar. The lunar calendar is an ancient Chinese calendar that incorporates the lunar cycle, which provided a strong basis for agricultural activities in ancient China. As one of the most important Chinese holidays, it is a day when people leave their work behind and return home to reunite with their families, resulting in a phenomenon of population migration only seen in China. It is common for large numbers of people to travel to and from towns and developed cities on the eve and after Chinese New Year every year. A total of 2.095 billion passenger trips were recorded around the Chinese New Year in 2023, according to statistics.
There are a variety of activities during the Spring Festival, such as reunion dinners with families, pasting couplets, the distribution of red envelopes to children, and the setting off of fireworks. Due to my experience in the printing industry, I am able to share with you my knowledge about couplets and red envelopes.
Couplets
Couplets are a pair of phrases, usually festive and auspicious, written on paper, cloth, or wooden signs to wish people a happy and prosperous new year. Nowadays, due to factors of ease of use, cost, and environmental protection, we typically print couplets on paper, but there are still many places that still use handwritten couplets. We will discuss the production of printed couplets in this section.
As the couplets are usually located outdoors, we usually select special papers that are sun resistant, such as flocked paper, embossed paper, etc. As for colors, we usually choose red as the background, since red is a symbol of celebration in Chinese culture.
As part of the printing process, usually through screen printing, the text is given a heavier feeling. Screen printing can be used in conjunction with a variety of inks and coatings, in addition to the conventional black font, some styles will also be decorated with gold powder on the text. Screen printing can also be utilized for this purpose.
In addition to screen printing, some manufacturers will also use offset printing, but the texture of the couplets will be less as a result. When it comes to the printing effect, the couplets typically use a hot stamping technique.
Red envelope
In China, elders usually give money to children during the Chinese New Year and place it in red envelope, which are said to drive away evil spirits, bless peace, and ensure that children grow up healthy. A red envelope is similar in structure to an envelope, and usually requires printing, die-cutting, gluing, etc.
There are a variety of paper choices available, depending on the design, such as cardboard, special paper, coated paper, or even plastic paper. It is generally recommended that the grammage is above 230g in order to ensure a pleasing texture. As with the couplets, red is the most commonly used color.
Typically, red envelope are printed using offset printing, usually with hot stamping or hot silver, as well as embossed to enhance their grade. Compared with the couplet, its production process has more steps of gluing, and most factories now have linkage manufacturing equipment, which enables them to complete all manufacturing processes, from die-cutting to gluing to packaging and bagging, automatically.
The above is my information sharing on New Year and New Year’s derivative products, and finally wish you a Happy New Year!
