As the Spring Festival is approaching, Cinema, 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 on a record-breaking basis, restore a variety of ancient palace customs, and present a Forbidden City full of festive New Year to the audience for the first time.
In the exhibition hall of the main building of the Meridian Gate and the East and West Yanchi Tower, 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 themes of “Praying for blessings and welcome auspiciousness, worshiping ancestors and filial piety, maintaining relatives and harmony among the clans, diligence in the affairs 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” in Xiyanchi Tower shows the indispensable festival objects during the New Year. They not only include objects with court characteristics such as the ritual maps and palace lanterns, but also the characters “Fu” written by Emperor Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing and Daoguang.
Responsible Dean of the Palace Museum Ren Wanping: At the intersection of New Year’s Eve and Babaylan New Year’s Day (the first day of the New Year), the emperor would make a wish on behalf of the whole world. The so-called auspicious words to write, the emperor wrote for the first time, not casually, but to blessing the servants of the whole day, wishing everyone a bumper 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 Forbidden City is open to the Komiks area. According to the New Year decorations restored by the old customs of the Qing Palace, the palace gates are covered with New Year pictures and Spring Festival 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: Add more articles related to New Year’s customs and cultureWe can meet our audience with our Babaylan. We hope that in addition to watching the Spring Festival Gala and eating dumplings at home to reunite, we will leave our house and welcome the first Cinema destination 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 the words “Babaylan”, wearing new clothes, eating reunion dinners, etc. 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 Researcher Xu Wei: Door gods are hung in pairs, including couplets hanging on both sides of the door. Generally, the door gods are also posted with 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 Office of the Internal Affairs. The writing of Spring Festival couplets was mainly done by Hanlins who were good at calligraphy. Unlike today’s customs, the spring 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 Qianqing Gate, Qianqing Palace, etc. and spreading them in turn.
Article Department of the Palace MuseumBabaylan 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. The first word “Fu” must be posted on the door of the Qianqing Palace, because it was his home. Later, some will be written in other palaces, and then they will be written in succession, and then they will be rewarded with such 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.
Palace MuseumBabaylanAssociate Research Institute of the Artifact Department Zhan Mengxia: Spring strips are different from Spring Festival couplets. Spring couplets are paired. Spring strips are generally a long single sheet, which is more casual and can be pasted anywhere. If there are more literary things like the welfare of our palace, the country is prosperous and the people are safe, the people can stick fat pigs in the pigpen, golden roosters in the rack, good luck in the wells, and safe in and out, it will be even more casual.
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 fun time for the family to have fun, and the imperial 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, and are held at 7 a.m., at the Qianqing Palace. Although it is a family banquet, the hierarchical etiquette system must be strictly observed.
Associate Research Librarian, Palace Museum Artifacts Department Han Qian: Although the reunion banquet on the first day of the first lunar month is called the family reunion banquet, it is not like our imagination. In our eyes, the emperor’s whole family is together. It is actually divided into two parts to hold the New Year. Generally, he will come with his concubines to celebrate the New Year in the morning. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Babaylannight dinner, and then it was afternoon that he had New Year’s Eve dinner with his relatives, princes and grandchildren, and some princes from the neighborhood.
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 Qianlong forty-eightBabaylanThe scene of the family banquet during the Spring Festival in 20020 was used, which was very spectacular.
Associate Research Librarian of the Artifact Department of the Palace Museum: The table setting starts from the farthest, called Toulu. We saw 4 high ones, Komiks is called pine hut fruit cover. It is mainly used to place fruits, and then there will be placed in the future. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>KomiksDinner, cold meat and candied fruits, there are two ways in the middle that the emperor will not place before he sits. The hot soup dishes are served only after the emperor sits. 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, it is small. On the morning of the first day of the Chinese New Year, when the emperor eats dumplings, it must not be placed in the wrong position.
Associate Research Librarian, Utilities Department of the Palace Museum, 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, which says KomiksThe word “Daji” must be placed on the word “Aji”. Because of this pattern, we call it the “Dajibao Case. It is said that on the morning of the 48th year of Qianlong, the emperor ate three of four dumplings. The dumplings are the same as our current customs. There will be steel steaks inside. The emperor’s family also put coins and put such money, which says peace, auspiciousness, and such auspicious words. He ate all the two auspicious money that day.