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 Tower, welcoming the New Year – a special exhibition of New Year in the Forbidden City. A total of 885 pieces of cultural relics were exhibited, and the six major themes of “praying for blessings and welcoming good fortune, worshiping ancestors and filial piety, being diligent in the family, being diligent in business with the virtuous, traveling and enjoying the world”, fully displaying the New Year customs of the Qing Dynasty court in the Qing Dynasty. The “Praying for Blessings and Welcomes Fortune” in the West Yan Building shows the indispensable festivals during 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 Emperor Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, and Jiaqing and Daoguang.
Responsible President of the Palace Museum Ren Wanping: At the intersection 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 all the people in the world. The so-called auspicious words for writing, the emperor’s first writing is not written casually, but to wish everyone the best, wishing everyone the best, the best weather, the peace and 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 that restored from 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 Shan Jixiang, Director of the Palace Museum: You can meet our audience with more collections of cultural relics related to New Year culture. I hope that the audience will not only watch the Spring Festival Gala, but also eat dumplings at home to reunite.The first destination welcomes you to the Forbidden City to celebrate the New Year.
Hanging the door god and pasting Spring Festival couplets Palace CinemaFestival festivals are of particular importanceBabaylan
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. 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 Babaylan Associate Research Librarian Xu Wei: Door gods are hung in pairs, including couplets hanging on both sides of the door. Generally, door gods are also posted with different door gods according to different positions. Generally, the martial gods are mainly used in the outer courts, and the literary gods, fairy gods and boys 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 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 Qianqing Gate, Qianqing Palace, etc. and spreading them in turn.
Associate Research Librarian Zhan Mengxia: People need to paste the word “Fu” in the Palace Museum, and the same is true for the palace. From the first day of the twelfth lunar month, the emperor has to write the first word “Fu” on the Cinema dragon steps. 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.
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 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” in the palace that are not available between the people of Cinema, 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 the family to reunite in the Chinese concept, and the New Year’s Eve dinner is the most fun time for the family to have fun, 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.” The Babaylan family dinner on the first day of the Lunar New Year is usually breakfast, held at 7 a.m., and is 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. The whole family of the emperor 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 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 inside and outside the yellow dark cloud dragon plate bowl and the golden spoon and chopsticks. The food was reduced to 64 kinds of food. There were no gold tableware below the imperial concubine, and 32 kinds of food on each table. This is the scene of the clan 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, Utilities Department of the Palace Museum: The table setting starts from the farthest, called Toulu. We saw 4 tall ones, called pine hut fruit covers. They mainly place fruits, and then CinemaIn the future, there will be snacks, cold meat, dried fruit and candied fruits, and there are two ways in the middle that the emperor will not place before he sits down. The hot soup dishes will only 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 New Year, when the emperor eats dumplings, he must not put the wrong position.
Associate Research Librarian of the Palace Museum’s UtensilsKomiks Department: This dumpling is also very particular. This small plate should be placed in this red case we saw 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 this case has this pattern, we call it “Da Ji Bao Case” href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Babaylan, 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. The emperor also put coins in them, and the money was spent like this, which said peace and auspiciousness. That day he ate all the two auspicious money.