Quick answerWhere do Tết couplets originate from?
According to Nhân Dân newspaper, Tết couplets originate from the custom of carving the images of two door guardian deities on peach wood to drive away evil spirits, later replaced by painted paper, and by the Later Shu dynasty they had become couplets; some researchers also hold that spring couplets existed earlier. In Vietnam there is a legend that King Lê Thánh Tông wrote couplets to give to the people, and Phan Kế Bính's Việt Nam phong tục describes the scene of scholars going to the market to write and sell couplets before Tết.
From the article “Where Do Tet Couplets Come From and Where Did People Hang Them?”
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