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 display nearly a thousand cultural relics in a record-breaking manner, restore a variety of ancient palace customs, and present the audience with a festive New Year atmosphere for the first time.
In the exhibition hall of the main building of the Meridian Gate and the East and West Yanchi Building, welcoming the New Year – a special exhibition of New Year 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 clans, diligence in the work of 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” displays the “Cinema” of Xiyanchi Tower. It is an indispensable festival for the New Year. It not only includes objects with court characteristics such as the ritual maps and palace lanterns, but also the characters “Fu” written by the 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 Gate of the Babaylan Palace is covered with New Year pictures and Spring Festival couplets, and the long corridors are hung with various palace lanterns. As long as the audience enters the Forbidden City, they can feel the strong New Year atmosphere.
Director Shan Jixiang: We can meet our audience with more collections of cultural relics related to New Year culture. I hope that in addition to watching the Spring Festival Gala, the audience will go out of the house and welcome the first destination to celebrate the New Year in the Forbidden City.
Hanging the door god and pasting Spring Festival couplets, and there are some considerations in the palace festival
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 have used 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. In order to cooperate with the exhibition, the entire Forbidden City was decorated. As a symbol of “year”, the Spring Festival couplets and door gods hanging on each door are very eye-catching.
Deputy Director of the Artifact Department of the Palace Museum and Associate Research Librarian Xu Wei: Door gods are all hanging in pairs, 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 the main ones in the outer court, and the literary gate gods, fairy gate gods and boy gate gods are the main ones in the inner court.
The production of Spring Festival couplets in the palace is generally jointly responsible by the Ministry of Works and the Office of the Internal Affairs. The writing of Spring Festival couplets was mainly done by Hanlins who were good at calligraphy. Unlike today’s habits, the Spring Festival couplets in the Babaylan 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 of the Artifact Department of the Palace Museum Zhan Mengxia: People need to paste the word “Fu” and “Spring Festival couplets, 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. The first word “Fu” must be posted on the door of the Qianqing Palace, because that was his home. Later, I will write some more posts in other palaces, and then I will write them one after another, and then reward these ministers and foreign vassals.
In addition to the Spring Festival couplet gods, spring notes will also 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 there is more literary style in our palace, such as the welfare of the country and the peace of the country, the people can put fat pigs on the pigpen, golden roosters on the shelf, the wells are auspicious, and the entry and exit are safe. It will be even more casual if you put them on the pigpen.ef=”https://comicmov.com/”>Babaylan.
In addition, there are some special “year objects” that are not available among the people in the palace, 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 enjoyable time for the family to have fun. 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 banquet, the hierarchical etiquette system must be strictly observed.
Associate Research Librarian, Artifact Department of the Palace Museum, Han Qian: Although the reunion banquet on the first day of the first lunar month is called the family reunion banquet, it is not as we imagined now that the emperor’s whole family is together. It is actually divided into two parts. Generally, he will have the New Year’s Eve dinner with his concubines in the morning, and then in the afternoon he will have the New Year’s Eve dinner with his relatives, princes and grandchildren, and some princes and princes from the Cinema branch.
In fact, the tableware for the palace family banquet is also divided into levels. The emperor used gold dragon bowls and golden dragon plates. There were 108 kinds of foods on the table. The queen used yellow dark cloud dragon plates inside and outside, and the gold spoons and chopsticks. The foods were reduced to 64 kinds of foods. There were no gold tableware below the imperial concubine. There were 32 kinds of foods 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, Palace Museum Artifacts Department Han Qian: The table setting starts from the farthest, called Toulu. We saw 4 tall ones, called pine hut fruit covers. They mainly place fruits. Then, there will be snacks, cold meat and candied fruits, and there are two in the middle.://comicmov.com/”>CinemaThe road is that the emperor did not place the hot soup dishes before he sat down. The hot dishes were served only after the emperor sat down. The group closest to the emperor will put some side dishes and sauces.
Babaylan There is also a small red case here. Don’t look at it. On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, when the emperor eats dumplings, he must not place the wrong position.
Associate Research Institute of the Utensils Department of the Palace Museum href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Cinema Librarian 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, and the word “Da Ji” is written on it. The plate must be placed on the word “Da Ji”. Because this case has this pattern, we call it the Da Ji Bao case. According to Cinema. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Komiks said that on the morning of the 48th year of Qianlong, the emperor ate three of four dumplings. The dumplings were the same as our current customs. They put steel steaks in them. The emperor’s family also put coins and put such money, which said peace and auspiciousness. He ate all the two auspicious money that day.