Saucer with birthday greeting

Motifs for Blessings
The Chinese word fu (福), translated as blessings or happiness, encompasses all that is auspicious in life. Foremost among the motifs related to blessings is the bat, also pronounced fu (蝠) but written with a different character. Many other traditional symbols for blessings, such as the Buddha’s-hand citron and the sheep, extend their cultural context to popular beliefs and the cult of Daoism., The decoration here forms two visual puns: “May your blessings be as deep as the eastern sea” and “May you live to be as old as the southern mountain.”