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 on a record-breaking basis, and restore various ancient customs of the Royal Palace Festival, presenting the audience with a festive New Year atmosphere for the first time.
In the exhibition hall of the main building of the Meridian Gate, Komiks 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 themes of “Praying for blessings and welcome auspiciousness, worshiping ancestors and filial piety, maintaining relatives and harmony among the clans, diligence and friendship with the virtuous, traveling and enjoying entertainment, and joyfulness” were fully demonstrated. The “Praying for Blessings and Welcomes Fortune” in Xiyanchi Tower shows the indispensable festival objects 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 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 Chinese New Year), the emperor wants to 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. He wants to bless everyone, wishing everyone a good 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 Festival couplets, and the long corridors of Komiks 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. 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 destination to the Forbidden City to celebrate the New Year.
Hanging the door god and pasting Spring Festival couplets. The court festival is 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. Cinema 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, door gods also post different door gods according to different positions. Generally, the main ones are the Wumen Gods in the outer court, and the main ones are the Wenmen Gods, the Fairy Door Gods and the Boy Door Gods 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 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 people, and the same is true for the palace. From the first day of the 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 in other palaces, and then I will write them one after another, and then I will reward the ministers and foreign vassals with such ministers.
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.
Deputy of the Artifact Department of the Palace MuseumKomiks ResearchLibrarian Zhan Mengxia: Spring strips are different from Spring Komiks couplets are paired, and Spring strips are usually long singles, which are more casual and can be pasted anywhere. If there are more literary things like the welfare of our palace and the peace of the country, the people can stick fat pigs, golden roosters, wells and springs, and peaceful entrances and exits. If you put them in a more casual way, it will be even more casual.
In addition, there are some special “year objects” that are not available in the folk, such as the Sui Dynasty map, the Sky Lantern, the Wanshou Lantern, the Palace 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 banquet, the hierarchical etiquette system must be strictly observed.
SoBabaylanPalace MuseumCinemaAsso researcher 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 emperorBabaylan said, ” The whole family of Emperor Cinema 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 of the kings of the neighbors.
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 a clan banquet during the Spring Festival in the 48th year of Qianlong, and more than 1 cultural relics were used.00 pieces, very spectacular.
Associate Research Librarian, Palace Museum Artifact Department Han Qian: Setting the table starts from the farthest, called Toulu. We saw 4 tall ones, called pine hut fruit covers. They mainly place fruits, and then there will be snacks, cold meat and candied fruits. There are two roads in the middle that the emperor did not place before he sat down. The hot soup dishes were served after the emperor sat down. The closest group 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 Artifact Department Han Qian: This dumpling is also very particular. This small plate of Babaylan should be placed on the red case we saw immediately. There is a gourd in the middle of the red case with the word “Da Ji” written on it. The plate must be placed on the word “Da Ji”. Because of this pattern, we call it the Da Ji Bao case. It is said that on the morning of the 48th year of Qianlong, the emperor ate three of the four dumplings. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>BabaylanThe dumplings are the same as our current customs. They will put steel steaks in them. The emperor’s family also put coins in them. They put such money, which says peace and auspiciousness. He ate all the two auspicious money that day.