Double happiness (囍)
囍, the character 喜 (xǐ, joy) written twice and joined into one sign, read shuangxi, “double happiness”. It is the sign of a Chinese wedding, pasted on the door and worked into the couple’s gifts and furnishings.
Meaning
Double happiness (囍, shuāngxǐ) is “a sign of marriage and good luck in the Chinese tradition”, as Singapore’s National Heritage Board puts it: two “happy” characters that wish the newlyweds marital bliss and many children. In Hong Kong, a set of wedding door decorations in the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia shows where it goes. Such papers “were and are used” for a son’s wedding: vertical papers on each side of the main door, where the bride will enter, a horizontal one above, and the diamond-shaped paper with double happiness on the door itself, under a drape of red cloth. Red, the museum notes, is auspicious and protective.
Origin and history
Museum objects show the character on things made for a marriage. The Cleveland Museum of Art has a brass mirror of about 1800 from the workshop of Tang Wanheng whose main decoration is a large 囍, and notes the suggestion that such mirrors were made less for looking into than for use in the wedding ceremony. The Saint Louis Art Museum has a Qing wedding altar frontal of the mid to late eighteenth century, of red and green velvet whose upper flap carries three doubled characters read shuang xi. The V&A has a pair of embroidered pillow ends with 囍 at the centre, surrounded by flowers, made for women and carrying wishes for a long and wealthy life.
Double happiness in Korea
The character crossed into Korea with the Chinese script. The V&A has a tobacco box of the Joseon period (1392–1910), the kind used by wealthy gentlemen, whose sliding lid is decorated with the character for double happiness; the museum notes that such boxes were commonly decorated with auspicious motifs.
With bats, dragons and phoenixes
On wedding goods 囍 is often combined with other signs of good fortune. The Cleveland mirror surrounds it with five bats, and silver toiletries in Singapore’s National Heritage Board collection pair it with a dragon. On a bride’s clothes the matching emblem is the Dragon and phoenix. The single character 福, good fortune, pasted upside down at the New Year, is a different sign (upside-down fu).
Read next
- Next in Chinese mythology and symbolsBat (fu)In Chinese art the bat is a sign of happiness and good fortune, because its name, fu (蝠), sounds like fu (福), good fortune. Five bats together stand for the five happinesses.
- Both are lucky characters pasted on the door on red paper, at a wedding and at the New Year.Upside-down fu (福)The character 福 (fu, “good fortune”) pasted upside down at Lunar New Year. It is a pun: “upside down” (倒, dào) sounds like “arrived” (到, dào), so an upside-down fu announces that good fortune has arrived.
See also
Dragon and phoenix, Qilin, Chinese dragon (long), Flaming pearl, Fenghuang (Chinese phoenix), Guardian lions (foo dogs).
Sources
- Mirror with Handle, Decorated with “Double Happiness” and Five Bats (Cleveland Museum of Art), Cleveland Museum of Art, Mirror with Handle, Decorated with “Double Happiness” and Five Bats, workshop of Tang Wanheng, c. 1800, 1995.401, Cleveland Museum of Art, description
- Wedding door calligraphy, Hong Kong (Museum of Anthropology at UBC), Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, item 396/4, calligraphy on red paper from a set of wedding door decorations, Hong Kong, record on the Reciprocal Research Network, Museum of Anthropology at UBC, object description
- Double Happiness (National Heritage Board, Singapore), National Heritage Board, Singapore, Roots.gov.sg collection record 1009940, “Double Happiness”, National Heritage Board, Singapore, object description
- Wedding Altar Frontal with Symbols for Double Happiness (Saint Louis Art Museum), Saint Louis Art Museum, Wedding Altar Frontal with Design of Peony and Lotus Scrolls, Symbols for Double Happiness, China, Qing dynasty, Saint Louis Art Museum, object description
- Pillow ends with double happiness (Victoria and Albert Museum), Victoria and Albert Museum, London, pair of embroidered pillow ends with the character 囍, Victoria and Albert Museum, summary description
- Tobacco box with double happiness, Korea (Victoria and Albert Museum), Victoria and Albert Museum, London, tobacco box with the character for double happiness, Korea, Joseon period, Victoria and Albert Museum, summary description
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from letters and numbers, lines or squares and rectangles.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 10, 2026. How we research
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