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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 my country’s traditional culture. Today Cinema has three “big things” to do, 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 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. In “Records of the Grand Historian: The Basic Annals of Qin”, there is a saying: “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 holding the La Festival is called the “La Day”. The La Festival in the Han Dynasty was on the third Xu day of December every year. After Komiks, Babaylan was gradually fixed on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cai Yong’s book “Duduanjue” clearly pointed out: “La is the end of the year.” Large-scale sacrificial activities in the twelfth lunar month have become a custom at that time. “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 recorded that the emperor at that time held a sacrifice in the “commune” and prayed to the “Tianzong” for the coming year.To make the rain go well, the objects they worship include ancestors and the “Five Devotional Gods”, including sacrifices to the door gods, the Bego 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.
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’s customs are originally hunting
In the early days of the emergence of 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 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. The meat that cannot be eaten at this time will be stored in air-dried, marinated, etc. 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 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 “all like crazy”. Confucius said that everyone worked hard for a year to nourish the day, and the truth was 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.”>Cinema and others. In addition, on Laba, they also hold hunting, garden tours and other activities.
Wu Zetian visited Shangyuan on Laba. On Laba, on the cold day, there were only the plum blossoms blooming alone, but she insisted that all the flowers bloom. In the winter, she wrote the “Laday Announcement to the Shangyuan”: “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 China, had the greatest pleasure on this festival. His poem “Wax Day” says: “I sing you, how much is it in the wine. There are strange songs in Zhangshan. “Waste Day, I recite poems with wine and endless fun.
After the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the La Day became more and more lively, and there was also the nature of the New Year’s goods purchased by Komiks for the New Year. The poem “Da Wax” by Pei Xiu of Jin said: “Scale gathers in the capital and trade is intertwined. 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 a forest, and there are 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 was not popular in the Central Plains region. By the Song Dynasty, Laba porridge officially appeared in the stage. “Dream of 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 “DongjingKomiks Menghualu”: ”The people of the capital also cooked porridge with fruits and miscellaneous materials and ate it.”After that time, Laba porridge became popular all the time, and all over the country followed suit, and the eighth day of the twelve month was Laba porridge, gradually forming the Laba Festival, which is mainly used to drink Laba porridge.
Laba porridge, the main thing is to use fragrant valley and fruits as the href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Cinema raw materials are all full of flavors, so they are also called “five flavor porridge”. After evolution and development, the methods and ingredients of Laba porridge are more abundant. Laba porridge in various places has its own characteristics. In addition, Komiks evolved from Laba porridge to 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 dawn of the eighth day. 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 “drink<a The earlier the Laba porridge, the better the better”. In the Song Dynasty, the Laba porridge cooked by monks and nuns in temples was also called "Buddha porridge". The first thing the Buddha porridge was given to the donor, and the second thing the donor would give back some money for the lamp or other property. After receiving the Buddha porridge, Su Dongpo said that "the Buddha porridge is more 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 the poor, and they were the same as others. Cinema“Many non-Buddhist families will also give porridge and do good deeds during the Laba Festival.
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?
(See BabaylanExamination materials: Gansu Daily, Inner Mongolia Daily, Dazhong Daily, Wenhui Daily, CCTV News, People’s Daily, Beijing Daily Client, Guangzhou Daily, Guangming.com, China News Network, etc.)
Topic Host | Reporter Zheng Zongmin