Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, is the longest and most important holiday for Chinese people. It is usually celebrated from the eighth day of the twelfth month to the fifteenth of the first month (lantern festival), by Chinese lunar calendar. Traditionally, from the 23rd to the 27th of the twelfth lunar month, every family cleans and paints their houses and does New Year shopping. In rural China, hanging New Year paintings is a must. Bought from the market, New Year pictures are hanged on every important spots of the house-the gete, rooms, the kitchen, the storehouse, the well, and the stable. Portraits of village god and kitchen got are usually pasted up on niched to express people's wishes for peace and happiness. For average Chinese farmers, hanging New Year paintings bring about unusual festive joy and delight to them.
Many provinces in China are known for their distinctive New Year paintings, from northern Hebei, Shangdong, Henan and Tianjin , to southern Shandong, Henan and Tianjin, to southern Guangdong and Fujian, from eastern Jiangsu to western Shaanxi and Sichuan. Among them, the painting genre from Wuqiang County, Hebei Province enjoys a long history, diversified styles and widespread reputation.
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