The Palace Museum is resurrecting the glory of imperial New Year's celebrations for holiday visitors, Wang Kaihao reports.

Whether the past year was good or bad, Spring Festival is a time to celebrate for every Chinese person.

People hope for an auspicious new year through myriad rituals. The emperors of old were no exception.

The Palace Museum in Beijing, which is also known as the Forbidden City, was China's imperial palace from 1420 to 1911. As the world's largest surviving palatial complex, the Forbidden City is famed for its abundant collection of cultural relics and brilliant architecture, revealing the grand royal power of its former inhabitants.

In the face of such grandeur, it is perhaps easy for visitors to overlook things that hint at the emperors' gentler emotions. Maybe, Lunar New Year is a good occasion to rediscover them.

Those visiting the Palace Museum over Spring Festival will find something new and warm the moment they step through its front gate.

Antithetical couplets and the auspicious images of "door gods" are hung on the gates to wish for prosperity and ward off evil spirits, while the eaves are decorated with lanterns in line with imperial tradition.

Wandering through the Forbidden City feels more like visiting a historical neighborhood bathed in a festive mood rather than a museum. However, one thing makes these royal decorations particularly different from others: Many couplets in the palace are written on white paper, unlike the red ones most visitors would have at home.

As the walls, doors and columns of the Forbidden City have all been painted in red, the emperors probably wanted to make these symbols of good fortune more visible.

Expecting good fortune

Though Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) emperors were ethnic Manchu people, they were willing to absorb the merits of Han culture. For example, emperor Qianlong, whose reign lasted from 1736 to 1795, also became a prolific calligrapher and poet.

On the first day of layue, the 12th month of the lunar calendar, the emperors would write their first fu (blessing) character of that year, kicking off another Lunar New Year season-but who was the best royal calligrapher? Well, people can now view the evidence and make their own judgment.

Fu characters written by five consecutive Qing rulers-Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing and Daoguang-are juxtaposed in the Meridian Gate Gallery, which is above the entrance gate of the museum.

They form part of Celebrating Spring Festival in the Forbidden City, one of the largest-scale exhibitions in the museum's history, which displays 885 cultural relics from the Qing Dynasty that are related to Lunar New Year.

To prepare for the event, more than 100 curators, led by the deputy director of the museum, Ren Wanping, have rummaged through pretty much all of the museum's warehouse. The exhibition, which kicked off on Jan 7, will run until April 7.

Because family reunions are the eternal theme of Lunar New Year, more than 100 cultural relics have been arranged to re-create the scene of a royal banquet during Spring Festival of 1783, based on detailed records of the event in the imperial files.

It is easy to see from the finished tableau that the emperor was a fan of hotpot.

There is a whole set of musical instruments to duplicate what the royal orchestra was like. When high officials expressed their Lunar New Year's blessings to the emperor, they needed some background melodies.

There was no CCTV Spring Festival Gala back then, so Peking Opera was the main holiday entertainment in the Forbidden City.

On Jan 9, workers who were renovating the Hall of Mental Cultivation-which was the residence of the last eight Qing rulers-discovered the performance program of a Peking Opera gala in a vent of the house.

It recorded a gala lasting for almost a day on Lunar New Year's Eve in 1826, that was set in three different locations and exclusively performed for the emperor.

The exhibition's curators immediately added it to the display, but so far, no one has been able to work out how it made its way from the emperor's hands into the vent.

Giving thanks

Chinese people are grateful in happy moments. So were the emperors.

During Spring Festival, families all over the country present offerings and sacrifices to their ancestors in solemn ceremonies to remember the virtues of departed loved ones and to promote filial piety.

The ceremonial tablets of the Qing emperors-and pendants, which were used to remind rulers to remain abstinent during preparations for the ceremonies-are showcased at the exhibition. They also stand as testaments to top-tier craftsmanship.

Emperors would write auspicious messages to invoke blessings for their dominion. In dynastic times, these messages were sealed in yellow boxes, which were never intended to be reopened but are now available for public viewing as part of the exhibition.

Qing emperors could not really forget about state affairs during Spring Festival, though the royal court held an annual ceremony to put away the imperial seals, indicating a period of repose.

The precious Gold Chalice of Eternal Stability-an iconic artifact inlaid with gemstones, embodying the expectation of stability and prosperity for the country-was put on emperor Qianlong's desk, reminding him to remain diligent.

Qianlong's study was part of the Hall of Mental Cultivation. As the hall is currently under renovation, his "home office" is duplicated for the exhibition, of which, the gold chalice is a highlight.

Being heavily protected by high palatial walls, emperors sometimes also organized Lunar New Year's fairs within the Forbidden City to better know how their humbler subjects spent their holidays.

However, the "vendors" were actually actors.

Once again, one of the Palace courtyards will fill with the sights, sounds and smells of a New Year's fair, but this time the vendors are genuine.

More than 150 time-honored brands from around the country, most of which are purveyors of New Year's snacks, will hawk their wares within the walls of the Forbidden City. The fair is set to run through Feb 10.

For visitors to the museum, there is not only a feast of knowledge and spirituality but also the joy of treats for the tummy.

Lamps for revitalization

Since the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), emperors would order the erection of "sky lamps"-which were more than 10 meters high-as well as slightly shorter "longevity lamps" in front of the Palace of Heavenly Purity, a key building within the Forbidden City, to ask for best wishes for Lunar New Year.

The lamps, with their exquisite decorations, were highly detailed and difficult to make, requiring state-of-the-art craftsmanship.

During the reign of Qianlong, the tradition was expanded to many other palaces. Historical records show it took about 8,000 people to make and install the lamps.

Qianlong died in 1799, and the end of the 18th century beckoned the decline of the Qing Dynasty.

Facing a shrinking national treasury, the thrifty emperor Daoguang decided to stop the tradition of the lamps in 1840.

The same year, war broke out between Chinese and British forces. The Qing lost the war, and Hong Kong was ceded to the United Kingdom. It marked the beginning of a dark period for China, punctuated by war and social upheaval.

As for the abandoned stone foundations in front of the Palace of Heavenly Purity, few people still remember what they were used for.

However, museum authorities have decided to once again erect the lamps this year. During months of preparation, Ren led a team to uncover the design blueprints of the lamps by referring to old files of the imperial court. They also gather scattered information about the lamps from home and abroad.

In September, the team produced the final draft, but Ren admits that time was against them to find identical materials to those used in the old days-such as the huge and precious lumber-to erect the lamps before Lunar New Year. Instead, copper was used for the poles.

After disappearing for 179 years, last week, the lamps stood once again, albeit unlit-after all, there is still a curfew in the Forbidden City and no visitor is allowed to stay there after night falls.

Ren still sees them as symbol of the country's modern revitalization that lights a path from the past to a bright future.