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As the saying goes, “Laba is the New Year”, 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. Today there are three “big things” to do, drink porridge, soak garlic, and welcome the New Year!
When talking about Laba, most people will think of the first “big event” 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 take a look at how the ancients celebrated 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: “CinemaThe La people will have a great sacrifice at the end of the year.” It has become a customary custom to carry out large-scale sacrificial activities in the twelfth lunar month. “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 the gate gods, the Hokage Gods, the Well Gods, the Kitchen Gods, and the Earth.href=”https://comicmov.com/”>CinemaSacrifice of Gods and others. It can also be seen from Cinema that the names and objects of the “La Festival” were relatively complicated at that time, and there was no dedicated sacrificial object.
The customs of the La Festival have been passed down from generation to generation until the present. In Lu Xun’s short story “Blessings”, Lu Town’s year-end ceremony “Blessings” and a series of pre-New Year sacrificial activities are the inheritance of the ancient La Festival.
Laba custom was originally hunting
In the early days of Chinese characters, many characters with similar meanings were inseparable. For the three words “wax”, “wax” and “hunting”, they 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, there are not BabaylanLike now, there are 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 harvested before might not be enough to eat. Therefore, hunting has become a necessary means of production in winter.
The “Common Meaning of the Common Meanings” by Ying Shao from the Eastern Han Dynasty recorded: “La means hunting, hunting animals in fields and worshiping ancestors.” It means that people hunt on La Day and use prey to worship ancestors. And the meat that cannot be eaten at this time will be preserved by air-dried and marinated to survive the cold winter. This is the origin of “babaylan”.
It is worth mentioning that during the Han and Tang Dynasties, the custom of drinking Laba porridge was not used on the Laba Festival, but the hunting wind was always on the way.
Laba was once a “carnival”
Feast on Laday or Wax DayIt is the 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 “all like crazy”. Confucius said that it took you 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 from the folk to the palace. The main customs of the Laba Festival in the Tang Dynasty were boiling “medicine and food” and lighting lamps. In addition, on Laba Day, they will also hold hunting, gardening and other activities.
Wu Zetian visited Shangyuan on Laba. On the cold day of Laba, there are only plum blossoms blooming alone in the snow and ice, but she insists on a hundred flowers blooming together. When watching a spring scenery in winter, she wrote “The Imperial Examination of the La Day”: “In the Ming Dynasty, we traveled to Shangyuan, and the fire was urgent to report the spring knowledge. Flowers must be released overnight, don’t wait for the morning breeze to blow.”
Tao Yuanming, the first pastoral poet in my country, had the greatest pleasure in this festival. His poem “Wax Day” says: “I sing you so much. How much is it in the wine? href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Komiks. I can’t tell much, there are strange songs in Zhangshan.” “Waste day and 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 it also became the nature of purchasing New Year’s goods for the New Year. The poem “Da Wax” by Pei Xiu of Jin says: “The scales are gathered in the capital, and trade and move in a staggered manner. The flowers chase each other and turn into curtains. There are meat like a hill, wine like a spring. There are food like a forest, and goods like a mountain.” There are so many things to buy, which shows 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 region. By the Song Dynasty, Laba porridge officially appeared. “Dream Lianglu” records: “On the eighth month of this month (December), the temple is called ‘Laba’. Dasha and other temples have five flavor porridge, and Babaylan is called Laba porridge.”
SouthBabaylan‘s “Dream Hualu” by Song Mengyuan of Tokyo: “On the day when the people of the capital also cook porridge with fruits and miscellaneous ingredients.And food is also the same. “Since then, Laba porridge became popular all the time, and all over the country followed suit, and the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month was gradually formed, with the Laba Festival as the main custom of drinking Laba porridge.
Laba porridge, mainly uses fragrant valley and fruits as raw materials, and has all kinds of flavors, so it is also called “FiveBabaylan flavor porridge”. After evolution and development, the methods and ingredients of Laba porridge are made of Laba porridgeBabaylan flavor porridge. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Cinema is more colorful, and Laba porridge in various places has its 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 are boredCinemaMaking Laba porridge will definitely get early, on the eighth day of the lunar monthCinemaThe fire was about to catch a fire before the Ming Dynasty. Some people started cooking on the evening of the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month to ensure that the porridge was cooked before dawn of the eighth day, because the ancients believed in the saying that “the sooner the 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’s porridge, the donor would usually give back some money for oil or other property. Su Dongpo’s so-called “the Buddha’s porridge is more often given to each other in the morning” meant this.
In the Qing Dynasty, for the purpose of “helping poverty”, monks in some places began to beg for alms to collect rice before the Laba Festival. According to the “Yanqing County Chronicle” of Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, in Yanqing, Beijing, “the monks raised rice along the gate in the early days. On that day, they made porridge and donated to the poor, and they were the same as others. “Many non-Buddhist families will also give porridge and do good deeds on the Laba Festival.
The eight festival customs at this time also show some new festival customs based on the overall inheritance of past customs.The main customs are to make 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 depths of the Chinese people’s memories. No matter how time changes, it still exudes a unique charm and brings new blessings and hopes.
How will you spend Laba Festival?
(References: Gansu Daily, Inner Mongolia Daily, Dazhong Daily, Wenhui Daily, CCTV News, People’s Daily, Beijing Daily Customers Cinema, Guangzhou Daily, Guangming.com, China News Network, etc.) Cinema
Top Host | Journalist Zheng Zongmin