Red paper Fu 福 character, posted upside-down on a wall
The above Chinese Characters are Fú Dao (Fú upside-down) and, Just the Character Fú. Fú To You!!
Discover the hidden Christian meaning in this Chinese Character!
The Mounted Fú Character is a widespread Chinese tradition associated with Chinese New Year that can be seen on the entrances of many Chinese homes worldwide. The characters are generally printed on a square piece of paper or stitched in fabric, and are posted upside-down on the front door of a home. The term fú 福 means “blessings” or “happiness”, and the practice is traditionally believed to invite prosperity and peace to the dwelling.
The essentially universal practice of posting the fu character upside-down has several different traditional explanations. The most basic of these is based on a wordplay: in nearly all varieties of Chinese, the words for “upside-down” and “to arrive” are homophonous or nearly homophonous. Therefore, the phrase “Fu upside-down” sounds either identical or nearly identical to the phrase “Fu arrives”. The practice of orienting the character upside-down is thus viewed as a natural wish for prosperity to descend upon a dwelling. However, for members of FGBMFI Fú may have a deeper meaning. Consider what Yinghuo Chong says about this humble greeting…
The character “fu” stands for happiness and good fortune, something much desired by the Chinese, not only during Chinese New Year but all year round.
From a Christian perspective, “fu” is also something to be grasped. It links-up with other characters to mean bless (zhu-fu), blessedness (fu-ze), good news and gospel (fu-yin), and evangelism (fu-yin zhu-yi). In the Beatitudes, the character (you-fu-le) appears nine times and means blessed is.
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