Why were there eight red palace lanterns under the eaves of the city tower and eight red flags beside the stone railing during the Founding Ceremony?

This has to start with the "Founding Ceremony". In order to exaggerate the festive scene of the celebration, the comrades in charge of decorating the venue specially invited the famous Japanese artists Xiao Ye and Mori Shigeru to design the venue. They are very familiar with Chinese traditional culture and know that displaying lanterns and streamers is a traditional form of celebration for the Chinese people. They proposed to hang eight red palace lanterns and place eight red flags on the Tiananmen Gate Tower.

"Eight" is homophonic to "Fa". Two "eight"s indicate that New China will have great development in all aspects. Secondly, because there are ten pillars on the front of the tower, it is divided into nine large grids, except for the middle grid, which can fit eight palace lanterns. Their idea was approved by Premier Zhou.

Each of the eight red palace lanterns that attract much attention is 2.23 meters high, 8.05 meters in circumference, 2.25 meters in diameter, and weighs 80 kilograms. Eight red palace lanterns and eight bright red flags have become the iconic decorations of Tiananmen Square. Until 1994, in order to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Tiananmen Gate Tower was renovated. The eight red palace lanterns on the tower were replaced by new folding lanterns.

Extended information:

When the founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China was held, Tiananmen Square was renovated. The horizontal mark on the tower read "The Founding Ceremony of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China", and Chairman Mao's inscription was hung in the center. Huge portrait (photographed in the 1940s). The slogans on both sides read "Long Live the Central People's Government" in the east and "Long Live the People's Republic of China" in the west.

There is no national emblem, because the CPPCC symposium and review committee on September 25 and 26, 1949 believed that modifications needed to be made, so the plenary meeting on the 27th only approved the national flag, national anthem, national capital, and calendar year 4. a resolution.

At that time, there were three east and west gates (formally known as Chang'an Left Gate and Chang'an Right Gate) and a long corridor in the south. There were long red walls on both sides of the corridor. The south gate was the masonry structure of the Zhonghua Gate. The doors are still there, forming a T-shaped enclosed venue. Compared with the Tiananmen Square when Peiping was just liberated eight months ago, it can be said to be completely new, much wider and flatter.

In addition, a flagpole that seemed to be very high at that time had been erected where the national flagpole is now, with a golden top on the flagpole. Lanterns and flags are hung on many buildings on both sides of Zhengyang Gate outside Zhonghua Gate and Qianmen Arrow Tower. The big characters of "Beijing East Railway Station" and "Beijing West Railway Station" were changed to "Beijing East Railway Station" and "Beijing West Railway Station" overnight.