Praznični običaji na cesarskem dvoru

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Praznični običaji na cesarskem dvoru

Jia Peilan, a serving maid to Lady Qi who later left the palace and married Duan Ru of Fufeng, said: “When I was in the palace, we used to entertain one another with strings and pipes, singing and dancing, vying to dress in alluring clothes for festive occasions. On the fifteenth day of the tenth month, we would all enter the Shrine of the Spirit Maiden and delight the goddess with offerings of suckling pig and millet. We played flutes, struck the zhu zither, and sang ‘The Spirit Above.’ Then we linked arms and stamped our feet in time, singing ‘The Red Phoenix Comes’—a custom of the shamans. On the seventh day of the seventh month, we gathered beside the Pool of a Hundred Sons and performed music from Khotan. When the music ended, we tied one another with five-colored threads, calling them ‘Ribbons of Union.’ On the fourth day of the eighth month, we went out through the north door of the carved chambers and played go beneath the bamboo. The winners would enjoy good fortune all year; the losers would suffer illness all year. Only by taking silken threads and praying to the North Star for long life could they avert this fate. In the ninth month, we wore sprigs of dogwood, ate mugwort cakes, and drank chrysanthemum wine to prolong our lives. When the chrysanthemums bloomed, we gathered their stems and leaves as well, mixed them with millet, and set the mixture to ferment. It was not ready until the ninth day of the ninth month the following year, when we drank it; hence its name, ‘chrysanthemum wine.’ On the first Dragon day of the first month, we went to the poolside to wash and ate mugwort cakes to dispel evil influences. On the first Snake day of the third month, we performed music beside flowing water. Thus we passed the year.”