What this supposed to mean?

for new years,"couplets", which are paired sayings, are often put on doors and they are usually read vertical. Could this be one?

Menu for a Thai restaurant. It also said:

新

年

快

乐

Neat Dictionary.

陈贺is a congratulations. But I have never seen simplified written vertically in the manner of the traditional characters.

What was the context of these characters?

Another unsolvable mystery then, eh?

That's pretty cool dictionary site actually, you can even look up by radical.

http://www.zdic.net/zd/bs/

I think it's meant to be ready vertically as 陈贺 seems to be a word.

http://www.zdic.net/cd/ci/7/ZdicE9Zdic99Zdic88270620.htm

Meaning to compliment or congratulate.

Yeah I think that one probably is wrong, but can't find a better match.

United Chen (???) congratulation

I can not seem to translate the character in the lower left quadrant. I don't agree with your rendition ofthe character but I can not find anything that is better either. This character may be the key to the overall meaning.