In the three months since I resigned, I have been trying to methodically find the "other" rhythm of life. Almost half of the week is spent talking about work, writing plans, and attending meetings. The other half is spent gathering with friends, drinking coffee and breakfast at home, and walking around the alleys of Beijing. There is often a moment when I suddenly feel the comfort of wasting time, and the small sense of happiness that comes with it. I believe that Xiaofei, who left "Feiyu Show" a year earlier than me and is at home, has a deeper experience. So as we walked around the streets, drank and drank, and had heart-to-heart conversations that could not touch our souls, we came up with a topic that we both considered "happier" - picnics.
Of course, before that, we also had the same question: "Why do we have a picnic?"
After that, we went home and opened computer web pages, social software, Movies, TV series, and world famous books began to look for some traces and reasonable explanations about it.
Walter Levy once wrote in the book "The Picnic: A History", "Picnics are accompanied by modern history, the transformation from pastoral life to urban life, villages Fall, City Rise.”
Although humans have been foraging outdoors since the dawn of time, it wasn’t until medieval hunting parties that people began deliberately carrying large amounts of food with them. What we now understand as a picnic is:
A purposefully organized meal outdoors in a natural environment. This behavior probably appeared about 500 years ago.
When you go on a picnic, you are actually trying to escape mediocrity. In fact, people have always imagined that picnics can take them away from the city and return to a simpler and more natural state of life. And this escape seems to be more obvious in works of art.
Then picnics became a popular leisure activity for wealthy people to spend time, and artists used picnics to express their imagination of pastoral life.
Let me take a look at those touching picnics through the eyes and brushes of the artist~
"Picnic on the Grass" by Philippe D'Angeli, also known as Philippe Napolitano (1589? ~ 1629). This painting's precise description of nature shows a dynamic, vivid and interesting world by the river: the vivid and lifelike changes in the woodland and a group of birds flying into the vast sky; in front of the artist, the artist uses smaller The scene vividly depicts a picnic on the grass and the utensils and food used for the picnic.
In the 17th century, noble ladies wore exaggerated long dresses from the Baroque period, drank and played with crystal wine glasses, while the men talked endlessly about literature, art, politics, and military. At this time, picnics have become a special form of social interaction.
"Picnic in May" (1873, Pal. Siney Mercy, Hungary. Collection of the Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest) The painter depicts the bright scenery of May, with green grass and flowers. In full bloom, several gentlemen and ladies are having lunch, enjoying the scenery of nature, enjoying freedom and happiness, and enjoying the gifts of nature. The painting expresses the painter's desire and pursuit of freedom, and depicts the ideal picture in his heart with an idealistic color.
The French painter Edouard Manet created the controversial "Luncheon on the Grass" in 1863 and exhibited it at the Salon of the Losers, which was the immortal painting that Napoleon wanted to whip with a whip. do. After that, the world painting world experienced rapid changes. And Pierre-Auguste Renoir's "Luncheon on Board" also depicts a picnic theme. Those who suffered from the Franco-Prussian War finally found a respite in the countryside. It was La vie Moderne at that time. ), people have been trying all kinds of extremes outside of daily life. What is more natural and soothing to the soul than a picnic?
Manet was one of the founders of Impressionism in the 19th century. He was born in Paris, France in 1832. He never participated in an Impressionist exhibition, but his innovative attitude toward artistic creation deeply influenced emerging painters such as Monet, Cézanne, and Van Gogh, thereby bringing painting onto the path of modernism.
Another work he created, "Family Picnic", uses sharp color contrast to vividly show the noble life of a family and the elegant and romantic realm of life.
Monet created several large-scale works between 1865 and 1867, all with the theme of "Picnic on the Grass." In these paintings, Monet avoided the sharp moral issues that caused controversy with Manet, and used ordinary and beautiful pictures to describe the real life of vacationing citizens in Paris' holiday afternoon parks or outdoor forests.
It is the same outdoors, it is the same lunch, and there is "the sunlight filtering through the gaps between the dense and tall trees, little by little", what appears in Monet's paintings The image of the characters is "two women sitting on the edge of the tablecloth, spreading out the fluffy skirt lace", is it "a man reclining next to the tree trunk, wearing a white shirt, a black vest, trousers and leather boots", or is it "Wear fashionable clothes."
In the 1930s, a group of famous photographers began to take pictures of people on outings in their spare time. Cartier-Bresson's "Sunday on the Marne" is like a copy of the previous oil painting. Moved into real life.
Those keywords about picnics
Keyword 1: Hunting
The beginning of the picnic was the banquet held by the nobles after hunting. Walter Levy, the author of "The Picnic: A History", said that the act of sitting on the ground with family and friends in the wild to eat some food and drink should actually have been around since ancient times, but there is no formal noun to call it. The evolution into written records can be traced back to the nobles' habit of eating in the wild after hunting.
The "Book of Hunting" written by a French Count of Phoebus at the end of the 14th century recorded in detail the details of European nobles dining out at that time: when the nobles went hunting, the nobles' accompanying servants would be there. The table is set up in the wild, covered with tablecloths and tableware, and the chef prepares semi-finished products such as ham and pies prepared before departure in the early morning. The wine consumed during the dinner is also chilled in the mountain spring to ensure that the entrance is cool and refreshing. After the nobles finished hunting, they were tired and thirsty, and there was food to eat immediately. The process was not easy at all, but it was a symbol of the nobles. This form of outdoor drinking and having fun is regarded as the earliest origin of picnics.
Keyword 2: Social interaction
With the emergence of the middle class in the 18th century, enjoyment was no longer just the exclusive preserve of the upper class. European country gentlemen's social interactions were indispensable with elaborate and elegant dinner parties in the wild, which became an important social occasion for young men and women to get to know each other.
In Jane Austen's novels and dramas, there are countless picnic scenes. Men and women sit or lean in beautiful wild fields to show their style, with colorful ingredients and tableware. Integrated with the landscape, this has also become the best inspiration for works in the eyes of painters.
Keyword 3: Sharing
The word picnic (picnic) is a modern product. According to the research of "Picnic History", the word picnic comes from the French Pique-nique. It originally meant that each participant should bring his or her own food, drinks and tea. This term later spread to the UK. A group of Londoners who loved French culture formed the Pic-Nic Society, and each member of the group brought a meal to an agreed-upon location. , while eating and drinking, acting and reciting a few lines of poetry, the prototype of a Western picnic gradually emerged.
In the East, the habit of picnicking can be traced back to the Qingming Cold Food Festival. During the Cold Food Festival in the third month of the lunar calendar, people were prohibited from lighting fires and could only eat cold food. In the Tang Dynasty, Cold Food gradually evolved into a day for worshiping ancestors and sweeping their tombs. Eaten as lunch in the wild, it has also evolved into a picnic form.
Especially in ancient times, women were not allowed to go out, and ancestor worship and outing on Qingming Festival were a good time for ancient women to go out. On this day, they would dress up carefully, go out early to pay homage to their ancestors, and then go out. Therefore, in ancient times, Qingming Festival was also a festival for women. They could go to the countryside to enjoy the spring scenery, fly kites, and have picnics.
From this point of view, regardless of East or West, the meaning of picnic has never changed, which lies in the spirit of bringing food yourself and sharing it with others.
Keyword 4: Picnic basket
The most important container for carrying food is the rattan picnic basket. This form of basket seems to be specially made for picnics. As long as you see it, you will naturally think of an elegant picnic on the grass. But in the beginning, people used this kind of basket purely because the food in the basket weighed a lot. In terms of materials, rattan was the most durable, so rattan baskets were often used. But the impression of famous paintings is so profound that even now, even with the emergence of lightweight and durable materials, when people think of picnics, they still want to use rattan picnic baskets to carry food, which seems to be more elegant.
Keyword 5: Picnic mat
Normally it is difficult for people to sit down on the grass, but the magical picnic mat is like a magic mat, as long as it is spread on the ground , seems to be announcing: This place is our territory. Adults can put aside their reserve in an instant and sit or lie down. Children can run around freely. Everyone eats, drinks and laughs as much as they want. The place with picnic mats seems to be an extension of each home.
Keyword 6: Breathe freely
One of the spirits of picnic lies in the sense of free breathing of returning to nature and relaxing yourself. For the Japanese who keep a low profile and strictly abide by their duties, the cherry blossom viewing season has evolved into the peak picnic season in Japan. Family members or colleagues have barbecues or bento lunches under the cherry blossom trees, while drinking beer and talking loudly. There are also more and more people in Taiwan who like to sit under the flowers and enjoy the sky during the flower viewing season.
Although many people criticize that the cherry blossom viewing season is the noisiest time in Japan’s wilderness, and the elegance of flower viewing is lost, to a certain extent this is also one of the key points of picnics: people can compare Normally I am more relaxed and informal. Especially in the highly technological modern world, picnic is synonymous with relaxing and taking a breather. This is also the key reason why the picnic trend has not declined from ancient times to the present and has become even more popular.
Theme Picnics
The 1988 White Picnic Day was the star of the themed picnic world. The founder of the event lived abroad in his early years and when he returned to Paris in 1988, he wanted to hold a party and invite his former friends to participate. There were too many people attending, and the party venue became a problem, so he chose the party venue in the west of Paris. Park "Bois de Boulogne" and agreed that everyone should wear white clothes to facilitate mutual recognition. Because the party was so successful, everyone made an appointment to meet again in the same format the following year. Later, this private dinner party followed this tradition and evolved into a well-known social event among Parisian upper circles.
The White Picnic lives on as a tradition. It is held on the longest day in June every year, and the number of participants can be as many as 10,000. This event has been so successful over the years that it has now been fully legalized, and there are similar themed events in about forty countries around the world.
My Picnic Memories
After seeing so many colorful picnics, we also began to think back on the picnic-related episodes and scenes in our lives, and thought about the closest ones. It seems that there is only the "spring outing" of childhood. On that day of universal celebration, every child will bring the food prepared at home and their beloved small objects to the parks, mountains and fields.
My memories of spring outings and picnics are not so good.
Because every year (at least when I was in elementary school) during my spring outing, I basically brought steamed buns with poached eggs carefully prepared by my mother to the banquet (in fact, I ate this on the way to school every day when I was not out on spring outing). . So usually I would eat it in three or five bites alone behind a tree, and then chase and fight with my classmates until I choked half to death. Once in a century, my family gave me a little extra pocket money, and I secretly bought a can of Jianlibao before the gathering. The teacher also confiscated it on the spot for several months because it delayed the group's departure time.
————I tried to hold my head high and not let the tears flow down————
So to this day, my heart is still full of yearning for a picnic.
So Xiaofei, I, and Mr. Yang, a businessman who lives in Shaoyaoju, jointly established a mysterious lifestyle research organization - 3T Life Guide, and began to explore and experience picnics first-hand. In this process, we continue to meet more interesting and like-minded friends.
I believe that in the near future, we will present and share more joy and beauty brought by "picnic" with everyone. Of course, more importantly, it must be your own unforgettable meal - a picnic.
On the way to the picnic, I walked calmly and calmly.
Pictures come from the Internet and original works.
Part of the text comes from:
"How to prepare a perfect picnic?" "
"Picnic: Spring and Impressionism"
"It turns out that picnic is just a game for the rich"
The most beautiful thing is the red sunset