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As the saying goes, “Laba is the New Year after it is over”, the atmosphere of the New Year gradually becomes stronger from Laba. January 18, 2024 is the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, which is the Laba Festival in traditional Chinese culture. There are three “big things” to do today, drinking porridge, soaking garlic, and welcoming the New Year!
When talking about Laba, most people will think of the first “big thing” to drink Laba porridge, but they may have less knowledge of the history behind it. Where did the customs of Laba Festival come from? In different historical periods, what were the differences between the ancients passing Laba? Let’s see how the ancients celebrate the Laba Festival!
Laba originated very early and is closely related to La Festival. Since the pre-Qin period, people will hold a wax festival at the end of the year, that is, use prey to worship ancestors and gods of heaven and earth, praying for a bumper harvest and peace for the whole family in the coming year. There is a saying in “Records of the Grand Historian: The Basic Annals of Qin”: “Twelve years, the first La.” It means that in the twelfth year of Qin Huiwenjun, the Qin State located in the west imitated the customs of the Central Plains and held the La Festival for the first time.
The day of the La Festival is called the “La Day”. The La Festival in the Han Dynasty is on the third Xu day of December every year, and later generations are gradually fixed on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cai Yong’s book “Ordinary Death” clearly stated: “La is the end of the year.” Large-scale sacrificial activities in the twelfth lunar month have become a customary custom. “Salvation for hundreds of gods” has also become one of the most important sacrifice activities to celebrate the harvest and pray for ancestors and gods at the end of the year.
The Book of Rites·Monthly Orders once recorded that the emperor at that time carried out sacrificial activities in the “commune” and prayed to the “Tianzong” for good weather to come. The objects they worshiped included ancestors and the “Five Sacrifice Gods”, including sacrifices to the door gods, the Ho Gods, the Well Gods, the Kitchen Gods, the Earth Gods, etc. It can also be seen from this that the names and objects of the “La Festival” at that time were relatively complicated and there was no dedicated sacrificial object.
Sakura FestivalThe customs of the times have been passed down from generation to generation. In Lu Xun’s short story “Blessings”, Lu Town’s year-end ceremony “Blessings”, a series of pre-New Year sacrificial activities in the Komiks series, is the inheritance of the ancient La Festival.
Laba custom was originally hunting
In the early days of the emergence of Cinema Chinese characters, many characters with similar meanings were inseparable. The three words “wax”, “la” and “hunting” come from the same origin. In fact, the initial appearance of Laba Festival is closely related to the hunting habits of the ancients.
In ancient times, unlike now, there were sufficient grain reserves and production capacity to allow everyone to spend the winter. It was cold and cold in winter at that time, and it was impossible to produce food, and the food I had previously harvested might not be enough to eat. Therefore, hunting has become a necessary means of production in winter.
The “Fengshuotong” by Ying Shao from the Eastern Han Dynasty records: “La means hunting, hunting animals in the fields to worship ancestors. “Cinema” means that people hunt on La Day and use prey to worship ancestors. The meat that cannot be eaten at this time will also be preserved by air-dried, marinated, etc., and used to spend the cold winter with Cinema. This is the origin of “bacon”.
It is worth mentioning that during the Han and Tang Dynasties, the custom of drinking Laba porridge was not the custom of drinking Laba porridge during the Laba Festival, but the hunting trend has been continuing.
Laba was once a “carnival”
Feasting on Laday or Wax Day is an ancient style. In the pre-Qin period, this festival was even a “carnival”. “The Book of Rites·Miscellaneous Notes” records: “Zi Gong looked at wax. Confucius said, ‘Is it a joy to give me?’ replied, ‘Everyone in a country is like crazy, and the joy to give me is not known.'” Zi Gong (Duanmu Ci) expressed his discomfort to “everyone is like crazy” after visiting the “Wax Sacrifice”. HoleBabaylan said that it took everyone a year to nourish this day, and the truth is not something you can understand.
In the Tang Dynasty, Laba was very concerned about Laba Festival, from the folk to the palace. The main festivals of the Laba Festival in the Tang Dynasty include “medicine and food” and lighting lamps. In addition, on Laba, they also hold hunting, garden tours and other activities.
Wu Zetian visited Shangyuan on Laba. On the cold day of Laba, only the plum blossoms were left blooming alone, but she insisted that all the flowers bloom. On the winter day, she wrote the “Laba Announcement of the Imperial Palace”: “In the Ming Dynasty, I went to Shangyuan and heard the news of the spring. Flowers must be set off overnight, don’t wait for the morning breeze to blow. ”
Tao Yuanming, the first pastoral poet in my country, had the greatest pleasure on this festival. His poem “Wax Day” says: “I sing you, how much is the wine. I haven’t figured out much, there are strange songs in Zhangshan. “Wao Day, I recite poems with wine, and the joy is endless.
After the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the La Day became more and more lively, and there was also the nature of purchasing New Year’s goods for the New Year. The poem “Big Wax” by Pei Xiu of Jin said: “The scales gather in the capital, and the Cinema is intertwined and traded. The flowers chase each other and turn their backs into curtains. There is meat like a hill, and there is wine like a spring. There are food like forests, and there are food like Babaylan Mountain. Komiks“
There are so many things in Babaylan that you can buy and buy. It can be seen that the “Shopping Festival” at the end of the year is originally a traditional festival in our country.
Laba porridge appeared in the Song Dynasty
Laba porridge began to emerge in the Tang Dynasty, but it was only limited to the Dunhuang region and did not become popular in the Central Plains. By the Song Dynasty, Laba porridge officially appeared in the stage. “Dream Lianglu” records: “On the eighth month of this month (December) the temple was called ‘Laba’. The temples such as Dasha all have five flavor porridge, called Laba porridge. ”
Meng Yuanlao of the Southern Song Dynasty recorded in “Dream of Tokyo”: “The people of the capital also cooked porridge with fruits and miscellaneous materials and ate them. Babaylan” Since then, Laba porridge has become popular all the time, and the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is gradually formed.
Laba porridge, the main href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Cinema uses fragrant valley and fruit as raw materials, and has all five flavors, so it is also called “five flavor porridge”. After evolution and development, the methods and ingredients of Laba porridge are more colorful, and Laba porridge in various places have their own characteristics. In addition, Laba porridge has evolved from Laba porridge, Laba garlic, Laba vinegar, Laba noodles, Laba tofu, etc., making Laba Festival a food festival with health care as the theme.
Laba Festival is also regarded as a “charity day”. The ancients would definitely make Laba porridge early, and it would catch fire before the dawn of the eighth day. Some people started cooking on the evening of the seventh day of the twelfth month to ensure that the porridge was cooked before the dawn of the eighth day of the twelfth month. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Babaylan, because the ancients believed in the saying that “the sooner you drink Laba porridge, the better.” In the Song Dynasty, the Laba porridge cooked by monks and nuns in temples was also called “Buddha porridge”. The Buddha porridge was given to the donor and helped the poor. After receiving the Buddha porridge, the donor would usually give back some money for oil or other property. Su Dongpo said that “the Buddha porridge is more fed to each other in the morning” meant this.
In the Qing Dynasty, it was out of “helping the poor”BabaylanPorridge does good deeds.
The Laba Festival customs at this time also showed some new changes in the festival customs based on the overall inheritance of previous customs, mainly including making wax vinegar and wax wine, shaving children’s hair, piercing women’s ears, and asking names.
The customs of Laba Festival have been deeply imprinted in the memory of Chinese people. No matter how time changes, it still exudes unique charm and brings new blessings and hopes.
How will you spend Laba Festival?
(Reference materials: Gansu Daily, Inner Mongolia Daily, Dazhong Daily, Wenhui Daily, CCTV News, People’s Daily Network, Beijing Daily Client, Guangzhou Daily, Guangming.com, China News Network, etc.)
Topic Host | Reporter Zheng Zongmin