Today is the 15th Lantern Festival of the first month, here I wish friends a happy holiday!
As early as the Song Dynasty, the celebration scene for the Lantern Festival was already very grand. The most famous surviving work depicting this festival is the "Ming XianZong Lantern Xingle Map" in the National Museum.
This huge scroll depicts the fifteenth day of the first month of the 21st year of Chenghua, when Emperor Mingxianzong Zhu Jianshen celebrated the Lantern Festival in the imperial palace. In the picture, various programs from morning to night are present by Xian Zong, including performances, acrobatics, magic, fireworks and firecrackers, and the whole mountain lamp market. In the painting, there is also a street market in the palace, imitating folk customs to set off firecrackers, make flower lanterns, and watch miscellaneous scenes.
In the picture, Zhu Mishen, dressed in civilian clothes, sits in a tent in front of the temple, and the attendants stand on both sides, and the hall is hung with colored lanterns, which is prosperous. In the stands, the Emperor Tianzi and the princes and nobles were happy and tired, and they applauded one after another. The entire Forbidden City lasted all night, completely immersed in the atmosphere of ecstasy.
It can be seen that although the people in the palace are high and powerful, they have little freedom and joy.
On New Year's Eve this year, the night and the lights are still there. However, with the passage of time and social changes, many traditional seasonal customs have been forgotten by us. As a genre painting, "Xianzong Xingle Tu" is also a silhouette of urban life in the Ming Dynasty, and perhaps the noise of the past years can still be felt through its yellowed paper silk.
Emperor Mingxianzong's Lantern Festival
Partial appreciation
Please enjoy it in landscape