Chinese couplets 
Christians in China’s central Henan province have been banned from displaying religious couplets over Chinese New Year.
Government officials visited villages and towns to deliver notices ordering people not to follow a practice that has become a tradition during the festival.
Local Catholics are concerned that a new round of religious oppression is aimed at the province.
With black or golden characters written on red paper, couplets are composed of a pair of poetry lines vertically posted on both sides of the front door of homes and a four-character horizontal scroll fixed above the door. They express people’s delight in the festival and their hopes for a better life in the coming year.
Fr Peter said he saw village cadres prohibiting Catholics from displaying couplets in Xuliang Town in Bo’ai County of Henan.
“The village cadres were yelling on the streets as they delivered circulars to every Catholic family,” he said.
“I asked one of them, ‘When was Article 36 of the Chinese Constitution rewritten to restrict religious freedom?’ he just turned and walked away.”
The priest, who serves in the region, said: “The situation is tenser this year and religious policy has been tightened too.”
Fr Peter said the few Catholics in the region are scattered across communities, so their influence is weak and they have no way of opposing the ban.
