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 the New Year in the Forbidden City. A total of 885 pieces of cultural relics were exhibited, and the six themes of “Praying for Blessings, Welcome Abundance, Worshiping for the ancestors and filial piety, Babaylan, Being close to the clan, Diligent and friendly to the virtuous, Traveling and Entertainment, and Joyful”, fully displaying the customs of the Qing Dynasty court in the Qing Dynasty. The “Praying for Blessings and Welcomes Fortune” in Xiyanzi 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 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 Komiks and the clan relatives and concubines had a banquet separately, the exhibition Babaylan refers 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 relatives’ 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 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: Put more in the New Year=”https://comicmov.com/”>BabaylanCinemaCity collections of cultural relics related to common culture can meet our audience. I hope that in addition to watching the Spring Festival Gala and eating dumplings at home to reunite, the audience will be welcome 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 activities such as sending blessings, wearing new clothes, and eating reunion dinner to express their beautiful expectations for the New Year.
Cinema As soon as I walked into the Forbidden City, the strong New Year atmosphere came to my face. 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 are also attached to different door gods according to different positions. Generally, the Wumen god is the main one in the outer court, and the Wenmen god, fairy door god and boy door god are the main one 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 sequence.
Associate Research Librarian Zhan Mengxia: People need to paste the word “Fu” and “Spring Festival couplets, and the palace is also like Komiks. From the first day of the twelfth lunar month, the emperor wanted to write the first word “Fu” on the dragon steps, and the first word “Fu” must be posted on the door of the Qianqing Palace, because that 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.
Association Research of the Artifact Department of the Palace MuseumKomiksLibrarian Zhan Mengxia: Spring strips are different from Spring Couplets. Spring couplets are paired. Spring strips are generally Komiks are long singles, which are more casual and can be posted 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.
HouseKomiksHome Palace Banquet BabaylanNew 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 moment for the family, and the Royal Family is no exception.
The Emperors of the Qing Dynasty usually had dinner alone on weekdays, and only ate with their concubines during the New Year, which was called the “family 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 it is a family banquet, the hierarchical etiquette system must be strictly observed.
Associate Research Librarian of the Artifact Department of the Palace MuseumBabaylan 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 from the near branch. In fact, the tableware for the palace family banquet was also divided into levels. The emperor used the golden dragon bowl and the golden dragon plate. The table had a total of 108 kinds of foods on Cinema. The queen used the inside and outside the yellow dark cloud dragon plate bowl and the golden spoon chopsticks. The foods were reduced to 64 kinds of foods. There were no gold meals below the imperial concubine, and 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 of the Utensils Department of the Palace Museum BabaylanHan Qian: The table setting starts from the farthest, called the Toulu. We saw 4 tall ones, called the pine hut fruit covers. The main ones are to place fruits. Then there will be snacks, cold meat and candied fruits, and there are two ways in the middle. The emperor will not place them before he sat down. The hot soup dishes are served after the emperor sat down. The group closest to the emperor will put some side dishes and sauces.
There is also a small red case here Babaylan. 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 should be placed in the red case we saw immediately. There is a gourd in the middle of the red case with the word “大天” and the plate must be placed on the word “天”. Because of this pattern, we called it the “天天”. It is said that on the morning of the 48th year of Qianlong, the emperor ate three of the four 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.