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 various 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 KomiksYanchi Tower “Praying for Blessings and Good Lucky” shows the indispensable festival objects during the New Year. It not only includes objects with court characteristics such as the utensils of the Year and the 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 (New Year’s Day 1), the emperor must make a wish on behalf of the whole world. The so-called auspicious words to write, the emperor did not write casually for the first time, but would bless everyone, wishing everyone a bumper harvest, good weather, peace in the world, etc. In order to show the scene where the emperor and his relatives and concubines feasted separately, the exhibition refers to the records of the meal base of the 48th year of Qianlong’s reign. More than 100 cultural relics were used to present the spectacular scene of the gold table at the ancestral banquet at the ancestral 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: We 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, and go out of the house. KomiksFirstWelcome to the Forbidden City for the New Year.
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 is overwhelming. 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 all hanging 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, in the outer court, the Martial God is mainly the Martial God, and in the inner court, Babaylan is mainly the Wenmen God, the Fairy God and the Boy Door God.
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 had to write the 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.
Associate Research Librarian of the Artifact Department of the Palace Museum Zhan Mengxia: Spring strips are different from Spring Couplets. Spring couplets are paired, and spring strips are usually long singles, which are more common when posted.href=”https://comicmov.com/”>BabaylanAnytime, you can post it anywhere. For example, if there are some families in our palace to be blessed and prosperous, the people are safe, if you are more casual about the people, you can stick fat pigs in the pigpen, golden roosters in the piles, good luck in the wells, and safe in and out, it will be even more casual about sticking them.
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 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 “Babaylan Family Banquet”. 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 Babaylan is a family dinner, the hierarchical etiquette system must be strictly followed.
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 Babaylan is as we imagined now that the emperor’s whole family is together. It is actually divided into two parts. Generally, he will have New Year’s Eve dinner with his concubines in the morning, and then in the afternoon he will have 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, and the food of food is reduced to 64 kinds. CinemaThere are no gold tableware below the imperial concubine, and there are 32 kinds of food on each table. This is the scene of the family feast 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: Setting the table starts from the farthest point, called the Toulu. We saw four tall ones called pine hut fruit covers. They mainly place water fruits. Then, there will be snacks, cold meat and candied fruits, and there are two ways in the middle that the emperor will not place before he sits. After the emperor sits, the hot soup dishes will be served. 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 Babaylan It is small. On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, when the emperor eats dumplings, he must not put it 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 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 “A Ji Bao”. 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 4 dumplings. The dumplings are the same as our current customs. The emperor also put coins in it. He put such money, which says peace and auspiciousness. He ate all the two auspicious money that day.