How is the Spring Festival celebrated in the Forbidden City?
The Qing Dynasty emperor's New Year was as lively as the outside, and he also used dressing, eating and colorful activities to express the joy of "New Year". However, every activity has a deep cultural connotation. The palace celebrates the New Year, luxurious, high-profile, and colorful.
The schedule of the old age in the palace
Celebrate the New Year in the palace: the emperor also has to write blessing characters
On the first day of the lunar month, the royal pen is blessed
In the past, the traditional Chinese New Year began on the first day of the lunar month and ended on the second day of the second lunar month. On the first day of the lunar month, the emperor will hold a ceremony of "opening the pen and writing the blessing", go to the Beihai Shenfu Temple to pray for blessings, and start writing the blessing words after returning to the palace, opening the prelude to the New Year.
Generally speaking, the first blessing character written by the emperor in the inner court will be hung in the main hall of the Qianqing Palace, and the rest will be posted in various places in the inner garden of the palace, or awarded to the concubines, princes' favored ministers, and the inner court.
On the eighth day of the lunar month, watch the ice frolic
In the palace of the Qing Dynasty, there is a "Taiye Pond Winter Moon Performance Ice Play" system, every year on the eighth day of the lunar month, from the Eight Banners and the officers and soldiers of the Three Banners of the Internal Affairs Office, thousands of people are selected to enter the palace for training, and then perform for the emperor, the concubine, the prince, the minister, etc. on the Taiye Pool in the West Garden during the winter solstice to the "Thirty-nine".
Ice running, grabbing the ball on the ice, kicking the head, grabbing, etc., riding a horse on the ice and archery, ......They weren't just performances, they were a variety of ice sports, and they also had some competitions, where the tie-break was similar to today's short track speed skating.
The twentieth month of the twentieth month of the month is sealed
The seal, also known as the sealed treasure, is the Ming and Qing dynasties of the imperial court specially introduced the Spring Festival vacation system, refers to the official seal letter, customs and other seals to seal, which means to stop the office, prepare for the New Year. The sealing time of the Qing Dynasty was as long as one month, and the sealing time of each year was generally selected around the beginning of the year, that is, in the month of Layue.
Ten. IX.II.
X.II. Ten. 1. Choose one day from 24; The printing time is chosen after the Lantern Festival, that is, in the first month of the following year.
Ten. IX.II.
In the tenth and twenty-first years, the auspicious day was chosen by the Qin Tianjian.
The twentieth day of the lunar month
The sacrificial stove is a major event, and the Qing Dynasty emperor routinely went to Kunning Palace to worship the god of the stove on the twenty-third day of the lunar month. In the palace, the sacrificial stove should use yellow sheep, and all kinds of dried and fresh fruits, stove sugar and other items should be offered. Like the people, the palace also prepared sugar for the god of the stove, in order to pray for him to "say good things to heaven and return to the palace to bring good luck". The emperor's sacrificial stove is mainly to pray for the blessing of the country and the people.
On the 24th day of the lunar month, there is a longevity lantern and a sky lantern
The court of the Qing Dynasty followed the old system of the Ming Dynasty, and on the 24th day of the lunar month, a pair of sky lanterns and longevity lanterns should be erected on the top and bottom of the Dan Majesty of the Qianqing Palace, and they were removed around the third day of the second lunar month. In the 54th year of Qianlong, a pair of longevity lanterns were added to the Huangji Palace.
The longevity lamp mainly undertakes the decorative function and reflects the beautiful meaning. The height of the longevity lantern is more than ten meters. The lamp pole is carved with a cloud dragon, with a pavilion at the top, and the lower end is inserted in the Hanzi jade pedestal, and there are four wooden pillars around it to support. There are eight cloud dragon heads under the lantern pavilion to hang lanterns, and each lamp hangs sixteen lanterns; Two crosses per couplet. The text of the lantern couplet of the Qianqing Palace follows the Ming Dynasty, and the lantern couplet of the Huangji Palace is written by Peng Yuanrui, a genius in the south of the Yangtze River, praising the cultural and martial arts of Emperor Qianlong.
On the twenty-sixth day of the lunar month, hang the Spring Festival couplet
The Forbidden City hangs Spring Festival couplets on the 26th day of the lunar month every year, and they are removed on the third day of the second lunar month.
The writing of the Spring Festival couplets was mainly completed by Hanlin, who was well-educated and good at writing. Different from the folk, the shape of the Spring Festival couplets of the Qing court is relatively special, they are all written on white silk with an ink pen, and then the border is made and hung on the vermilion pillars of the palace.
The door god is not pasted, but framed and hung up. The court sticks different door gods according to different positions, and the martial door gods are the main ones in the outer court, and the Wenmen gods, fairy door gods and boy door gods are the main ones in the inner court.
On the twenty-ninth day of the lunar month, the temple is sacrificed
袷 (xiá) sacrifice", that is, to sacrifice ancestors. The day before Chinese New Year's Eve, the emperor personally went to the temple to worship. The temple is divided into three halls, the front hall is the hall of enjoyment, and the middle and rear halls are the sleeping halls. In normal times, the nave enshrines the tablets of Taizu Nurhachi to the first emperor, and the apse enshrines the ranks of the four distant ancestors before Taizu. During the kimono sacrifice, all the tablets in the middle apse are invited to the front hall to be sacrificed together.
The sacrifice to the Taimiao Temple is the highest level of royal sacrifice - the Great Sacrifice, so the emperor needs to fast for three days. During the fasting period, not only are you not allowed to entertain or drink, but you are not even allowed to work.
Chinese New Year's Eve Celebrate the New Year and enjoy the drama Eat vegetarian dumplings
Dinner. In the second year of Qianlong (1737), the emperor and his concubines held a family banquet on Chinese New Year's Eve in the Qianqing Palace. The family banquet is undertaken by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the emperor's imperial banquet table is equipped with 40 items of cold meals, hot meals, and group meals, and 20 items of wine and tea meals at the back, plus 108 items of dumplings, side dishes, soups, porridges, candied fruits, etc.; The queen's first-class banquet table was reduced by sixty-four grades; There are no two people at the second-class banquet table for concubines and concubines, and there are three people at each table for the third-class banquet table for concubines and nobles, and the food is 32 products.
Eat vegetarian dumplings. According to legend, when the Qing Taizu Nurhachi was handsome thirteen pairs of armor, he fought bloodily for many years, and there were countless dead, and in order to show repentance, Nurhachi vowed to make vegetarian dumplings every Chinese New Year's Eve to honor the deceased. Several emperors in the early and middle Qing Dynasty strictly adhered to the ancestral precepts, and after saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new on the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, they went to the Zhaorendian hut on the east side of the Qianqing Palace to eat boiled dumplings. When the emperor sat down, the dumplings happened to come out of the pot.
In order to pinch the time when the dumplings came out of the pot, every time the emperor walked through a door, the eunuchs who followed him set off a firecracker.
Depending on the sound of the firecrackers, the chefs in the imperial dining room know when the best time to cook the dumplings. In this way, as soon as the emperor entered the Zhaoren Hall and sat down, the steaming dumplings were brought to the table.
New Year's Day
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the emperor made many arrangements for this day, including opening the book auspicious language; Browse the "Book of Time and Space" timing;
Worship the Buddha and worship the God of Haotian; worship ancestors, sacrifice halls; set up family banquets and clan banquets in the Qianqing Palace; Greeting the Queen Mother; Receiving congratulatory announcements and holding state banquets in the Taihe Palace; I also have to write the "Heart Sutra" and enjoy the play.
Open the window. Every New Year's Day (0:00 to 2:00 a.m.), the Qing Dynasty Emperor (starting with Emperor Yongzheng) will hold a meeting in the East Warm Pavilion of the Yangxin Palace.
Open the window" ceremony. The emperor sat in front of the window, the golden Ou Yonggu cup was filled with Tusu wine, the emperor personally lit the jade candle long tune candlestick, in the candlelight, wrote the New Year's message with a 10,000-year-old tube pen, prayed for the country and the people, and finally picked up the golden Ou Yonggu cup and drank Tusu wine.
Eat dumplings. During the Yin period (3-5 o'clock in the morning), the emperor ate dumplings in the Hongde Hall on the east side of the Qianqing Palace. The eunuch sent a plate of boiled dumplings (i.e., dumplings) with a carved lacquered flying dragon banquet box, and placed the plate on the word "auspicious" in the Dajibao case. A total of four dumplings were sent, two of which were wrapped in Tongbao (copper coins), and eating dumplings with Tongbao meant that a year was auspicious. The emperor ate three, and the remaining one did not have a treasure, so he sent it to the Buddha hall to make offerings.
Feast. There are two kinds of banquets, one is the beginning of breakfast (7 o'clock in the morning), the emperor and the concubines and their relatives hold a family banquet in the Qianqing Palace; The other is the dinner (2 p.m.), where the emperor and his clan relatives, princes, grandsons, and princes hold a clan banquet.
In the forty-eighth year of Qianlong (1783), the great banquet of the clan relatives, invited 1,308 clan relatives to eat in the Qianqing Palace, and placed 530 tables from the throne in the main hall to His Majesty Dan.
New Year's Eve Chonghua Palace Tea Banquet
Every year, from the second day of the first month to the tenth day of the first month, an auspicious day is selected to drink tea and compose poetry in Chonghua Palace (starting in the early years of Qianlong), and the invitees are all bachelors and Hanlin who are full of poetry and books. The emperor gave the drink of Sanqing tea, which was cooked in snow water, and pine nuts, plum blossoms, and bergamot were added.
Before the banquet, Emperor Qianlong made a question on the spot and composed poems and couplets according to the regulations. After the feast, the emperor will award rewards to the ministers. The rewards include purses, wishful thinking, painting shafts, end inkstones, etc., and you can also "carry the Sanqing tea bowl".