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, restore a variety of ancient palace customs, and present the audience with a violet city full of festive New Year flavor 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 the affairs of the virtuous, and being happy in the world”, fully demonstrating the New Year customs of the Qing Dynasty court in the Qing Dynasty. The “Praying for Blessings and Welcomes Fortune” in Xiyanchi Tower shows the indispensable festivals during the New Year. It not only includes objects rich in the characteristics of the palace, such as the pictures of the year and palace lanterns, but also the words “Fu” written by the emperors of the Five Dynasties of Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing and Daoguang.
Responsible President 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 time 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 and his clan relatives and concubines feasted separately, the exhibition referred to the records in the 48th year of Qianlong’s reign (1783). To restore 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 in accordance with the New Year’s 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 are hung with palace lanterns. As long as the audience enters the Forbidden City, they can feel the strong New Year’s atmosphere.
Director Shan Jixiang: We can meet our audience with more collections of cultural relics related to New Year culture. We hope that in addition to watching the Spring Festival Gala and eating dumplings at home to reunite, we will leave the house. The first destination is welcome to the Forbidden City to celebrate 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 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.
Komiks 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 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 Industry and the Office of the Internal Affairs. The writing of Spring Festival couplets was mainly done by Hanlins who were good at writing Cinema. 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 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 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.
Associate Research Librarian Zhan Mengxia, Utility Department of the Palace MuseumCinema: Spring strips are different from Spring Couplets. Spring couplets are paired, and Spring strips are usually a long single sheet.ps://comicmov.com/”>Babaylan, it is more casual to post. Cinema can be posted everywhere. For example, if there are some families in our palace for welfare and peace and stability, you can post fat pigs, golden roosters, well springs, and peace in and out. Komiks, it is even more casual to post.
In addition, there are some special “year objects” that are not available in the folk, such as the lunar calendar, the sky lantern, the lantern of the palace, and other unique objects in the palace.
Family Palace Banquet Purple href=”https://comicmov.com/”>KomiksNew 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, and the royal family is no exception.
The Qing Dynasty emperors usually eat alone on weekdays, and only eat with their concubines during the New Year holidays, which is called the “family family banquet”. The family banquet on the first day of the New Year is usually breakfastBabaylan, which is held at 7 a.m., and is located in the Qianqing Palace. Although it is a familyKomiksFeasts must also strictly abide by the hierarchical etiquette system.
Associate Research Librarian of the Arts 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 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 he will have New Year’s Eve dinner with his relatives, princes and grandchildren, and some princes from the nearest branch.
In fact, the tableware for the palace family banquet is also divided into levels. The emperor uses the golden dragon bowl and the golden dragon plate. There are 108 kinds of foods on the table. The queen uses the yellow dark cloud dragon plate inside and outside, and the golden spoon and chopsticks. The foods are reduced to 64 kinds of foods. There are no gold tableware below the imperial concubine. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Komiks32 kinds of food on the table. This is the scene of the family banquet during the Spring Festival in the 48th year of Qianlong. More than 100 cultural relics were used, which is 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 tall ones, called pine hut fruit covers. They are mainly used to place fruits.In 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 be served only 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 Lunar New Year, when the emperor was eating dumplings, he must not be placed in the wrong position.
Associate Researcher of the Artifact Department of the Palace MuseumCinema 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, which says the word “Da Ji” and the plate must be placed on the word “A 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. The dumplings are the same as our current customs. The emperor also put coins in it, and the emperor’s family also puts such money, which says peace and auspiciousness. That day he ate all the two auspicious money.