For New Parents
Chinese characters welcoming a new arrival into a peaceful home.
平安喜乐 (Píng Ān Xǐ Lè) — Peace · Safety · Joy · Gladness
For new parents and the life they are welcoming: 平安 asks that the child arrives safely and grows up whole; 喜乐 asks that the household fills with the particular joy a new life produces. The phrase fits the baby shower precisely because it addresses both the vulnerability of the moment (safety is not guaranteed) and the fullness of it (joy is already present). Neither half is supplementary.
慈 (Cí) — Tender Love for a New Life
For the parents about to learn what 慈 feels like from the inside. The character names the love that bends down to shelter something small and fragile — the exact disposition a newborn calls out of the people around it. Where 平安喜乐 blesses the child’s safe arrival, 慈 names what the household is about to fill with: the protective, downward-flowing tenderness a new life draws out of a parent before the parent has even decided to give it. It is the character built into 慈母, the loving mother of the language’s most quoted poem.
安 (Ān) — Peace · Safety · Tranquility
See 安 →瑞 (Ruì) — Good Tidings · Blessing · Promise of a Bright Year
See 瑞 →宁 (Níng) — Serenity · Inner Calm · Stillness
See 宁 →康 (Kāng) — Health · Well-being · Wholeness
See 康 →平安 (Píng Ān) — Peace · Safety · Well-being
See 平安 →Each character is hand-brushed by Artist Lina Sun on rice paper.
See on Etsy →