福禄寿好运锦鲤（2 / 2）

①松柏与仙鹤

Apart from peaches and peach blossoms， other longevity symbols might include long lived evergreens like pines and cypresses and also cranes which are usually ridden by the immortals.

②鱼

In addition to the big three， lucky and auspicious symbols can easily be found in our daily life. Look at food for example， especially during some of our major traditional festivals. For the Chinese New Year banquet， most families would have fish because the character fish sounds like surplus. And in many regions， people would intentionally avoid finishing the fish dish just so that they could have surplus in the ing new year.

③年糕

In southern China， niangao (年糕) or glutinous rice cake is a lucky food eaten on Chinese New Years Eve because in Chinese， niangao (年糕) sounds like getting higher every year. So with this auspicious food， youre likely to achieve more and bee more prosperous.

④汤圆

And for lantern festival， we have tangyuan (汤圆)， the glutinous rice ball or rice dumplings. They are eaten for two auspicious reasons. Both are round shapes and the pronunciation of the food symbolizes reunion and being together.

⑤龙；凤；丹顶鹤；鹿

Many auspicious animals are embroidered on traditional clothing. Apart from the very well-known dragons and phoenix， which were reserved for the imperial family， other animals which have made frequent appearance on clothing include red-crowned crane， symbol of longevity and high ranking officials; deer， which was also believed to be the carrier of immortals， on top of that， it has the same pronunciation “lu“ as in prosperity and happiness.

⑥鸳鸯

Another quite unique animal often seen on traditional clothing is the mandarin duck. They are the representatives of a loving couple and eternal love in Chinese culture.

⑦玉

Before we wrap up this episode， I would like to add one more auspicious symbol， something quite uniquely Chinese. This is jade. When it es to stones that are both valuable and auspicious， jade is the obvious choice. It is believed to be a heavenly stone that brings longevity and prosperity. In the Beijing Olympic Games， the gold medals were made of gold and had an inlay of white jade on the back.