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Text | Qing Yufei
Edit | Qing Yufei
Modern people take birthdays very seriously, and no matter where they are or what the situation is, they will do their best to celebrate a birthday.
So since ancient times, there have been many red tapes, so modern people attach so much importance to birthdays, so how did ancient people celebrate birthdays? Do you pay more attention to them?
In fact, in ancient times, birthdays were not like now, and every birthday was happy, and even made a big deal.
In the beginning, people did not have birthdays, and even until the Qin and Han dynasties, they gradually began to have such activities as birthdays.
Because in the eyes of the ancients, birthdays were the Good Friday of mothers.
Therefore, it is not used to celebrate happily, but to be filial to the mother or even to thank the parents for their nurturing grace, and it has nothing to do with the birthday person itself.
It was only after the Tang and Song dynasties that it began to rise on a large scale, because before the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, people could hardly find records of birthdays, and there was not even the awareness of "birthdays".
In the Sui and Tang dynasties, birthday celebrations began to escalate, and Tang Taizong designated his birthday as a festival and organized special celebrations, after which successive emperors followed suit.
Therefore, after that, people gradually began to have the awareness and Xi of celebrating birthdays.
As the emperor of an ancient country, they also had their own definition of birthday after the birth was gradually raised.
Therefore, some emperors' birthday ceremonies are full of grand and luxurious ceremonies. On the day of his birthday, the emperor would initiate various activities, invite hundreds of officials to celebrate together, and even invite hundreds of officials' homes to celebrate together.
At this time, the emperor will be able to receive many rare and valuable birthday gifts.
And this day is also the day when the emperor is in the happiest mood, so it is very likely that on this day of celebration, the emperor will issue some messages of national celebration in order to be happy together.
For example, like amnesty for the world, this is unattainable.
And the emperor's birthday, the whole palace will prepare for a long time in advance, and the banquet is also very exquisite, which can be regarded as a disguised reward for hundreds of officials and their families.
And at the banquet, everything from what is used to what is eaten is extremely luxurious. The key is that there are all kinds of performances, and the emperor's day is probably the most pleasant day of the year.
Therefore, there will be some people who take advantage of this day to give a good gift and inadvertently make a small request, and this time can often get what they want.
Even, the emperor would issue tax and rent reductions in celebration to show his concern and tolerance for his subjects.
Therefore, the emperor's birthday is very important, and it is also an example of the ancients who rose up after they began to consciously celebrate their birthdays, and even celebrated them for themselves.
Later, birthdays gradually infiltrated ordinary people, and every household no longer avoided birthdays, so how did ancient commoners live?
First of all, our modern life is nothing more than eating cakes and blowing out candles, either at home our parents make a table of delicious food, or go to a restaurant outside to eat.
Besides, even if you are celebrating with some good friends, there seems to be nothing new.
But after the ancients had the consciousness of birthday, it can be said that they had a more sense of ritual.
First of all, the newborn, when the newborn is born, the highest family will announce the good news, if it is a boy, the family will hold a bow outside, if it is a girl, it will take a handkerchief outside.
In this way, everyone can tell at a glance whether there is a baby boy or a baby girl in the house.
And there is a weekly ceremony for children's birthdays, and this ceremony has been retained in some areas even now.
But in ancient times, the Zhou ritual was more thorough, and in this ceremony the child who had reached the age of one would begin to climb, and there would be various objects on the table, whether it was literary or martial.
The family will use what the child grabs to determine what kind of business the child will engage in in the future.
When I was a child, children's birthdays were not as important as in modern times, and they generally caught the week of the first birthday, and ordinary people generally let their children eat longevity noodles, and then add an egg to celebrate their birthday.
Compared to the older people in ancient times, the birthday of a child is indeed not worth mentioning.
And the modern elderly celebrate their birthdays, and it is generally a big family to get together, sing a birthday song together, have a reunion dinner, and eat a birthday cake.
But in ancient times, the procedures for the birthday of the elderly were relatively much more elaborate.
Birthday celebration, in fact, in the real sense began from the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and "longevity" was gradually characterized as a birthday celebration for the elders, and it became customary.
In ancient times, the elderly's birthday party was attended by their children and relatives who personally came forward to send invitations.
And those invited guests will prepare birthday gifts in advance, the most common are birthday cakes, birthday candles, birthday noodles, longevity peaches, longevity couplets and other birthday gifts.
Of course, there are also cooked food, such as chicken, duck and fish, and there are even clever people who will cut a big "longevity" or "blessing" character with red paper.
This is the good wishes of the guests to the elderly, and the main family will also arrange the longevity hall in advance, which is generally not large, and the family banquet will be mainly lively.
In ancient times, a person's age also determined what level of birthday they could enjoy.
For example, "do birthday" and "do birthday" generally refer to the big birthday once in ten years.
But like middle-aged and young people, there is no Xi of inviting guests to celebrate, which means that twenty, thirty and forty years old are not birthdays, and generally birthdays are normal meals at home with some meat dishes.
And like the twenty-year-old, maybe there is not even meat dishes, and the parents usually boil a few eggs to pass, which is at most called a "little birthday".
However, forty years old does not do longevity, because "four" and "death" are homonyms, and the ancients paid more attention to these, so they think that it is not auspicious to be longevity at this age, and it is generally not a birthday.
At the age of 50, the ancients paid more attention to it, 50 years old was called "Daqing" by the ancients, and over 60 years old was called "Shangshou", and the two old people with the same life were "double longevity".
However, in ancient times, the division of status and class was very clear, so there was a significant gap between the rich and noble families or those with good family conditions and ordinary people.
In ordinary people's homes, everything on birthdays is simple, whether it is a child, an adult, or an elderly, it is mainly simple.
But for the rich and noble, or officials, it can be much more lively.
The family will set up the longevity hall in advance, and even the night before the birthday will let the red candle shine high, and the birthday star will sit in the hall and then accept the prostration of the descendants after burning incense to pay homage to the ancestors of heaven and earth, which is the "longevity" of the ancients.
Wait until the next day's birthday, early in the morning to set off firecrackers to accept the congratulations of friends from all walks of life, this is the "birthday", the banquet is very grand, even the door will be pasted with birthday couplets, and the gathering is very lively.
Compared with today, the rules and etiquette of the ancients seem to be more, but compared with children, it is true that today's people are happier.