The Tang Dynasty designated the emperor's birthday as a national holiday, and each emperor's birthday name was different. Tang Xuanzong's birthday is called "Qian Qiu Festival", Tang Suzong's birthday is called "Tiancheng Floor Festival", Tang Xuanzong's birthday is called "Shou Chang Festival" and so on. Every few days, the whole country will have a three-day holiday, and celebrations will be held everywhere.
On the emperor's birthday, the ministers of the DPRK will offer the emperor a long live birthday wine, in addition to some treasures and playthings. Local officials should also provide birthday gifts. According to records, in the early years of the Tang Dynasty, the total amount of birthday gifts for the emperor was more than 200,000 yuan, and by the end of the Tang Dynasty, it had reached more than one million yuan.
Book of the New Tang Dynasty: Records of Rites and Music;
Ministers knelt down on behalf of ministers and said, "This is called Millennium Festival, and we can't wait for the anniversary, so we hope to live for tens of millions of years."
The emperor replied: "The birthday wine offered by Deqing and others is celebrated with Qing and others inside and outside."
Of course, after the emperor accepts the birthdays of ministers, he will also give corresponding rewards according to the level, but they are all pearls and silks, which are insignificant compared with the birthday gifts received. In the Tang Dynasty, it was natural to add poems to the emperor's birthday. Many Tang poems describe the celebration of the emperor's birthday, such as "since the Millennium Festival, August has frequently hurt the body", "dancing with birthday wine, autumn is gone" and so on.
During the Song Dynasty, Song, Xia, Liao and Jin were in opposition. Whenever there is an emperor's birthday, other countries also send envoys to congratulate him, juxtaposing the emperor's birthday with festivals such as "Happy New Year" and "Sacrifice to Heaven" to make this day more noble. Besides the emperor's birthday, there are large-scale activities to celebrate the birthdays of the Empress Dowager and Empress Dowager. Later, it was added to the prince's birthday. But the emperors' birthdays are all called "Shoushou Festival" or "Wanshou Festival", and every emperor's birthday is no longer given a special name like the Tang Dynasty.
In the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the great ancestor of Ming Dynasty, remembered his parents' early death every birthday, and his heart was full of grief, so he ordered his birthday not to accept any congratulations. On this day, Zhu Yuanzhang will "live in seclusion all day" and "be a vegetarian". It was not until Zhu Yuanzhang's later years that he accepted birthday greetings and gave a banquet in honor of the minister, but at the same time he stipulated that "no gifts, no poems, no gifts and no fasting". In a word, everything is simple.
In the Qing dynasty, the atmosphere of celebrating the emperor's birthday rose again, and the scale of celebrating the emperor's birthday was even more than that in the previous Tang and Song dynasties. During the Kangxi period, scholars were invited to hold a grand banquet on the day of the emperor's birthday "Wanshou Festival". In the TV series Kangxi Dynasty, there is a scene to celebrate Kangxi's birthday. In Changchun Garden, Kangxi arranged a Millennium banquet, which all officials in Zhili and those over 65 years old can attend.
You can enter the palace gate if you are over 90 years old, go to Danyong if you are over 80 years old, and be outside the palace gate if you are over 70 years old. The emperor will personally send drinks and food to these courtiers, and the Crown Prince and Baylor will send colorful silks, satins, jewels and other items to the minister's wife. And some countries around China will also send envoys to participate.
The appellation of courtiers' birthdays also changed with the changes of dynasties. Before the Song Dynasty, it was generally "be careful to live for tens of millions of years". In the Yuan Dynasty, there may be tens of millions less, so it was changed to "Long live hundreds of millions". In the Ming dynasty, it may have been a bit too much, but "tens of millions" was really not enough, so it was changed to "Long live the Millennium".
Not only have the names of birthdays been adapted, but the names of emperors' birthdays have also been slightly different. In the Tang Dynasty, every emperor's birthday had a unique name, which was unified as "Thousand Spring Festival" in the Song Dynasty, "Ten Thousand Spring Festival" in the Yuan Dynasty and "Wanshou Festival" in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
The above is the general situation of the ancient emperor's birthday. In the final analysis, it is actually to satisfy the vanity and ambition of ancient emperors with all kinds of complicated etiquette, grand scale and luxurious arrangement.