When we were out to eat some temple food, I looked up and was rather surprised to see a dried fish bound to the traditional house’s roof beam. We asked the owner what the meaning of that was and her explanation was not what we expected.
There are many stories about why fish are an important symbol in buddhism. The story I heard was that, since they don’t close their eyes, fish never sleep. Therefore they are percieved as “wise” and their shape is often found in temples as a reminder to stay alert and/or awake. You will even notice fish-shaped bells and drums in many temples.
Because of that, I first thought that the roof-beam-fish was probably some kind of always-awake guard for the house. It turns out: it isn’t. As the restaurant owner explained, it is believed that spirits occupy free space in our world. So when a new house is built, it invades some poor spirit’s habitat. In order to keep said spirit happy, people offer dried fish as food and hang it out of reach for anyone else. I think that is a very cute way to make peace between the human and the spirit wold. Even without Aang or Korra đ
Some of you might have also noticed some chinese characters on the roof beam. Those are engraved when the house’s topping out ceremony takes place and show building dates etc.