Emperor Qianlong
The topic of how the ancient emperors celebrated the New Year should be of great interest to modern people who like to travel.
During the Qing Dynasty, the emperors' old sons and daughters all liked the days when it was a little colder than the days when it was too hot, so they spent most of the year in other gardens, and only on this special festival, the Spring Festival, did they return to the palace for the Spring Festival.
Under normal circumstances, the emperor stopped working on the 26th of the twelfth lunar month, and often didn't start writing again until the first day of the first month.
Under normal circumstances, there is almost no time for the emperor to have dinner with the queen and his concubines in a year, and only on New Year's Eve will they really have a reunion dinner. During the Qing Dynasty, on the morning of New Year's Eve, the old emperor, the queen and the concubines had breakfast, and generally they ate yellow rice, cakes and rice cakes, with various designs and dozens of kinds. Lunch on New Year's Eve is usually held at four o'clock in the afternoon, and dinner is the most important meal. The dinner was placed in Baohe Hall or Ganqing Palace, with one table for the emperor, and the table was a "Golden Dragon Banquet Table", surrounded by a gold embroidered table enclosure.
Needless to say, there are all kinds of delicacies such as pork, fat duck, vegetable duck, fat chicken, vegetable chicken, pork elbow, etc. After everything is ready, take your places. At this time, the eunuch first gave the emperor soup, and then sent soup to the concubines. The order was out of order and the weight was completely different. After the dinner, the emperor will give all kinds of food and even plates to the ministers.
during the Qing dynasty, the order of Chinese new year in the palace was generally like this. On New Year's Day, just before dawn, civil and military officials will gather in the Hall of Supreme Harmony Square to congratulate the emperor's old son on the New Year. At this time, all kinds of ceremonial instruments are arranged in the square, which are solemn and lively. At seven o'clock in the morning, the emperor's old son boarded the throne of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, and all the officials took their seats according to their level and knelt down to worship. At this moment, two university students will read out the New Year greetings and last year's summary. After reading it, the courtiers bowed down again, and then the emperor gave tea to enjoy the seat. After drinking tea, it's almost the end to pay a New Year call to the emperor. At this time, the emperor's old son will distribute his prepared purse to the ladies-in-waiting and eunuchs around him.
Sometimes the emperor will write a few big blessings and give them to the important officials around him. It is said that Emperor Qianlong went to the temple to worship Buddha every year on the first day of New Year's Day, and then returned to the palace to write the word "Fu". The first blessing written by Emperor Qianlong is generally not given to courtiers, but is permanently preserved, which means that the blessing will be preserved forever. In addition, the spring festival couplets in the imperial palace are the same as those in the folk, such as setting off firecrackers and posting Spring Festival couplets, but unlike the folk, the Spring Festival couplets in the ancient palace are all hung up, not posted by the folk. This practice is worth advocating now. Hanging is not only clean, but also can be used many times, so it is not so wasteful.
compared with the folk flavor of the year, although the ancient palace was rich in food, it had little flavor of the year, full of red tape, dogmatic flavor and officialdom flavor.