As the Spring Festival is approaching, this year’s Spring Festival, you might as well come to the Forbidden City in Beijing to see exhibitions, enjoy palace lanterns, taste delicious food, and feel the flavor of the New Year! The Palace Museum will break the record, display nearly a thousand cultural relics, restore a variety of former palace festival customs, and present a Forbidden City full of festive New Year atmosphere to the audience for the first time. Cinema
In the exhibition hall of the main building of Babaylan and the East and West Yanchi Building, welcoming the New Year – a special exhibition in the Forbidden City. A total of 885 cultural relics were exhibited, and the six major themes of “praying for blessings and welcoming good fortune, worshiping ancestors and filial piety, maintaining relatives and harmony among the clan, diligent and friendly to the virtuous, traveling and enjoying the world”, fully demonstrated the New Year customs of the Qing Dynasty in the Qing Dynasty. The “Praying for Blessings and Welcomes Fortune” in Xiyanchi Tower shows the indispensable festivals during the New Year. It not only includes the objects rich in palace characteristics such as the lunar calendar and palace lanterns, but also the characters written by Emperors of Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing and Daoguang.
Responsible Dean of the Palace Museum Ren Wanping: At the junction of New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day (the first day of the New Year), the emperor must make a wish on behalf of the whole world. The so-called auspicious words to write, the emperor’s first writing is not written casually, but to bless everyone, wishing everyone a prosperous harvest, good weather, peace in the world, etc.
In order to show the scene where the emperor and clan relatives and concubines feasted separately, the exhibition referred to the records of the meal base in the 48th year of Qianlong (1783) and restored this scene alone, more than 100 cultural relics were used to present the spectacular scene of the Golden Dragon Banquet Table at the clan banquet. The audience can intuitively feel the atmosphere of the Royal New Year’s Eve dinner. In addition, the entire open area of the Forbidden City is decorated according to the New Year Festival restored by the old customs of the Qing Palace. The palace gates are covered with New Year pictures and spring couplets, and the long corridors are hung with palace lanterns. As long as the audience enters the Forbidden City, they can feel the strong New Year atmosphere.
Director of the Palace Museum Shan Jixiang: Cut more cultural relics related to New Year’s customs and cultureI can meet our audience. I hope that in addition to watching the Spring Festival Gala and eating dumplings at home to reunite, the audience will be welcome to celebrate the New Year in the Forbidden City.
Hanging the door god and pasting Spring Festival couplets, and the court festivals are of particular importance. For thousands of years, the activities of the New Year have been rich and colorful. Whether it is ordinary people or the Forbidden City, they all use activities such as sending blessings, wearing new clothes, and eating reunion dinner to express their beautiful expectations for the New Year.
As soon as you enter the Forbidden City, the strong New Year atmosphere comes to you. To cooperate with the exhibition, the entire Forbidden City was dressed up. As a symbol of “year”, the Spring Festival couplets and door gods hanging on each door are very eye-catching.
Deputy Director of the Palace Museum and Associate Research Librarian Xu Wei: Door gods are all hanging together, including couplets hanging on both sides of the door. Generally, door gods are also attached to different door gods according to different positions. Generally, the martial gate gods are mainly used in the outer courts, and the literary gate gods, fairy gate gods and boy gate gods are mainly used in the inner courts.
The production of Spring Festival couplets in the palace is generally jointly responsible by the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The writing of Spring Festival couplets was mainly done by the Han Wenwen who was good at writing. Unlike today’s customs, the Spring Festival couplets in the palace are not posted on New Year’s Eve, but are hung on the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month every year, starting from the Qianqing Gate, Qianqing Palace, etc. and spreading them in turn.
Associate Research Librarian Zhan Mengxia: People need to paste the word “Fu” in the people, and the same is true for the palace. From the first day of the twelfth lunar month, the emperor had to write the first word “Fu” on the dragon stairs, and the first word “Fu” must be posted on the door of the Qianqing Palace, because that was his home. Then I will write some more in other palaces, and then I will write them one after another, and then I will reward these ministers and foreign vassals.
In addition to the Spring Festival couplet gods, spring notes will be posted in the palace. Spring strips are auspicious words written on long strips of paper.
Associate Research Librarian, Palace Museum Artifacts Department Zhan Mengxia: Spring strips are different from Spring Couplets. Spring couplets are paired. Spring strips are generally long singles, and they are more casual when posted and can be pasted anywhere. If you are more civilized like the people in our palace, such as the welfare of Cinema, and the Babaylan, you can stick fat pigs, golden roosters, and wells, and go out to Ping An, it will be even more casual to stick it in the pigpen.
In addition, there are some special “year objects” that are not found in the folk, such as the Sui Dynasty map, the sky lantern, the Wanshou Lantern, and the Palace Lantern.
Family Palace Banquet New Year’s Eve New Year’s Eve dinner in the Forbidden City
The New Year is a day for family reunion in Chinese concepts, and the New Year’s Eve dinner is the most happy time for the family, and the royal family is no exception.
The Emperors of the Qing Dynasty usually had their meals alone and only ate with their concubines during the New Year Festival, which was called the “family family banquet of clans.” Family dinners on the first day of the Lunar New Year are usually breakfast, held at 7 a.m., and are located in the Qianqing Palace. Although it is a family dinner, the Babaylan hierarchical etiquette system must be strictly observed.
Associate Research Librarian, Utilities Department of the Palace Museum, Han Qian: Although the reunion banquet on this day is called a family reunion banquet, it is not like what we imagine now that the emperor’s whole family is together. It is actually divided into two parts. Generally, in the morning he will have a New Year’s Eve dinner with his concubines, and then in the afternoon he will have a New Year’s Eve dinner with his relatives, princes and grandchildren, and some princes from the near branch.
In fact, the tableware for the palace family banquet is also divided into levels. The emperor used the golden dragon bowl and the golden dragon plate. The table has a total of 108 kinds of food. The queen used the yellow dark cloud dragon plate bowl and the golden spoon and chopsticks inside and outside. The food of each color has been reduced to 64 kinds. There are no gold tableware below the imperial concubine, and 32 kinds of food on each table. This is the scene of the family banquet during the Spring Festival of the 48th year of Qianlong. More than 100 cultural relics were used, which is very spectacular.
Associate Research Librarian of the Arts Department of the Palace MuseumHan Qian: The table setting starts from the farthest point, called the Toulu. We saw 4 tall ones, called the pine hut fruit cover. They mainly place fruits, and then there will be snacks, cold meat and candied fruits and candied fruits. There are two other ways in the middle that the emperor will not place before he sits down. The hot soup dishes will be served after the emperor sits down. The group closest to the emperor will put some side dishes and sauces.
There is also a small red case here. Don’t look at it as small, on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, when the emperor eats dumplings, he must not put the wrong position.
Associate Research Librarian, Palace Museum Artifacts Department Han Qian: This dumpling is also very particular. This small plate should be placed in the red case we see immediately. There is a gourd in the middle of the red case with the word “Da Ji”. The plate must be placed on the word “Da Ji”. Because of this pattern, we call it “Da Ji Bao”. According to Komiks, on the morning of the 48th year of Qianlong, the emperor ate three of the four dumplings. The dumplings are the same as our current customs. There will be steel stews in it, and the emperor’s family also put coins. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Babaylan put such money on it, which said peace and good luck. Cinema‘s auspicious words. That day he ate all the two auspicious money.