The rabbit is the gentlest sign of the Chinese zodiac — and the only one with an address on the moon. In folk art it carries wishes for peace, elegance, and long life.
This page offers a traditional folk rabbit pattern as a free printable template. Download the PDF below, print it at 100% scale, and cut your own rabbit.
A traditional folk pattern, restored for printing. Free for personal and classroom use. Print at 100% scale.
What the rabbit means in paper cutting
The rabbit in Chinese culture lives, first of all, on the moon. Folk belief holds that a Jade Rabbit sits beside the moon goddess Chang'e, pounding the elixir of immortality with a mortar and pestle. On a full-moon night, children are told, you can make out its shape among the moon's pale shadows. This lunar companion ties the rabbit to the Mid-Autumn Festival, when families gather to admire the moon, and lends the animal its associations with longevity and quiet, patient work.
The fourth sign of the zodiac, the rabbit is paired with the earthly branch Mao (卯), and the character often appears beside the animal in cut designs, as it does here. People born in rabbit years are traditionally described as gentle, gracious, and quietly lucky. The rabbit's meanings are soft ones — kindness, elegance, long life, and a peaceful household — and folk art sometimes pairs the animal with cabbage, because "cabbage" (白菜, bai cai) echoes the phrase for "a hundred wealth."
Rabbit paper cuts appear most at Mid-Autumn and during rabbit years, when the new sign replaces the old one on windows and greeting cards. A child born in a rabbit year may receive rabbit cuts on birthdays long afterward, honoring the sign they carry. The cutting style follows the animal's character: long ears, a rounded body, and smooth curves, often set among flowers and sprays of blossom. A rabbit cut is a gentle blessing to give or receive — may your home be peaceful, your days be long, and your luck arrive quietly.
About this template
This template is a single-piece traditional folk pattern in red. The rabbit is shown with long ears among flowers inside a circular frame, and the design includes the character Mao (卯), the rabbit's earthly branch, at the upper right.
The pattern is approachable for patient beginners. The circular frame is one continuous contour, and the interior is mostly open curves — blossom rounds and leaf shapes — with only a few tighter details around the rabbit's face. The template is a traditional folk pattern restored for printing, and it is free for personal and classroom use.
How to print and cut
Print the template at 100% scale; do not let the printer shrink or fit it to the page. Two PDF versions are provided, A4 and US Letter, so you can match your paper size. Printing on red paper gives the traditional result directly; printing on white and backing the finished cut with red paper works just as well.
Use small, sharp scissors for the outer circle and the rabbit's outline — the curves here are smooth and beginner-friendly. For the flower centers and other small interior shapes, a craft knife over a cutting mat gives cleaner edges. As with every red-on-white pattern, the red areas are the design and remain, while the white areas are cut away. Work the interior from the middle outward to keep the paper supported as you go.
More zodiac templates
The rabbit is part of our full set of twelve Chinese zodiac paper-cutting templates, each a free printable PDF with its own meaning and cutting notes:
- Chinese zodiac paper-cutting templates — the complete set of all twelve signs
- Tiger paper-cutting template — the third sign, a guardian against evil
- Dragon paper-cutting template — the fifth sign, a symbol of power and good fortune
FAQ
May I use this template for commercial work? The pattern is free for personal and classroom use. Anything commercial — products, paid designs, resale — requires a license, so please contact us first.
What paper do you recommend? Thin red paper is the classic choice, but regular printer paper, origami paper, or light craft paper all produce good results. Thinner sheets are easier to cut and give cleaner edges.
Is scissors-only cutting realistic for this one? Yes, more than most. The circular frame and the rabbit's outline are smooth curves that scissors handle well. A craft knife will still give tidier flower centers, but a careful beginner can finish the whole pattern with scissors.
What is the Jade Rabbit on the moon? Folk belief says a Jade Rabbit lives on the moon beside the goddess Chang'e, endlessly pounding the elixir of immortality with a mortar and pestle. It is why rabbits belong to Mid-Autumn Festival imagery, and why the rabbit carries wishes for long life.
Author
This article was prepared by the team at ChineseFolkCrafts.com. We are not intangible-cultural-heritage inheritors or museum researchers. Our job is to find authoritative Chinese sources, understand them, and explain them clearly for international readers.
If you spot an error — a date, a translation, a misattributed custom — please let us know and we will correct it. Last updated 2026-08-02.
