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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. There are three “big things” to do today, drinking porridge, soaking garlic, and welcoming the New Year!
When mentioning Laba, most people’s reactions are BabaylanCinema 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! Cinema
Laba originated very early and was closely related to Lasheng Festival. Since the pre-Qin period, people will hold the Komiks Festival at the end of the year, which is to sacrifice prey to the ancestors and the gods of heaven and earth, pray for the harvest and peace of the 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 “Order” was clearly statedIt is clearly pointed out that “La is the end of the year.” Large-scale sacrificial activities in the twelfth lunar month have become a custom at that time. “Salvation to the hundreds of gods”Babaylan 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 held sacrifices 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 quite 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 custom was originally hunting
In the early days 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 original appearance of Laba Festival is closely related to the hunting habits of the ancients.
In ancient times, unlike now, there was sufficient food 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 preserved 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 Laba Festival did not have the custom of drinking Laba porridge, but it was aThe hunting wind continued.
Laba was once a “carnival”
Feasting on Laday or Wax Day is an ancient styleCinema. In the pre-Qin period, this festival was even a “carnival”. “The Book of Rites·Miscellaneous Notes” records: “Zi Komiks‘s tribute to the wax. Confucius said, ‘Is it a joy to give me?’ replied, ‘Everyone in a country is like crazy, and the gift is not known to give me the joy.'” Zigong (Duanmu Ci) expressed his discomfort to “everyone is like crazy”. Confucius said that it took you a year to nourish this day, and the truth in it 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. In winter, she saw a spring scenery, and she wrote the “La Day Expression of the Imperial Examination to Shangyuan”: “In the Ming Dynasty, we traveled to Shangyuan urgently and heard the spring. Flowers must be released overnight, don’t wait for the morning breeze to blow.”
Tao Yuanming, the first pastoral poet in our country, had the greatest pleasure on this festival. His poem “Waste Day” says: “I sing you so much, how much is it in the wine? I can’t tell much, there are strange songs in the mountains.” During the season of Wax 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 gather in the capital, and the trade is moved in a staggered manner. The flowers chase each other and turn into curtains. There are meat like a hill, and there are 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 did not become popular in the Central Plains region. By the Song Dynasty, Laba porridge officially appeared. “Dream Lianglu” records: “On the eighth day of this month (December) the temple is called ‘Laba’. Dasha and other temples all have five flavor porridge, called Laba porridge.” “Dongjing Menghualu” by Meng Yuanlao of the Southern Song Dynasty records: “On the day of the capital, all families also cook porridge with fruits and miscellaneous ingredients and eat them.” Since then, Laba porridge has become popular and all places have followed suit, and the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is the Laba Festival, which gradually forms the Laba Festival with drinking Laba porridge as the main custom.
Laba porridge is mainly made of fragrant valley and fruits, and is full of five flavors, so it is also called “five flavors porridge”. After evolution and development, the methods and ingredients of Laba porridge are more colorful, and Laba porridge in various places has its own characteristics. In addition, Laba porridge has evolved from 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 lunar month to ensure that they would be before the dawn of the eighth day of the 8th day of the 18th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19th day of the 19 href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Babaylan cooked the porridge because the ancients believed in the saying “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’s porridge, the donor will usually give back some money for lamps and oil or other property. This is what Su Dongpo said, “The Buddha’s porridge is more given to each other in the morning.”
In the Qing Dynasty, for the purpose of “helping poverty”, monks in some places began to beg for alms to recruit rice before the Laba Festival. According to the “Yanqing County Chronicle” of Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, Beijing Komiks‘s “Monks’ Early Period”I collected rice along the gate. On that day, I made porridge and gave it to the poor, and I was with others. “Many non-Buddhist families will also give porridge and do good deeds on the Laba Festival.
The Laba Festival customs at this time have shown some new changes in the festival, mainly including making wax vinegar and wax wine, shaving children’s hair, piercing women’s ears, and asking for names.
The customs of the Laba Festival have been deeply imprinted in the memory of the Chinese. No matter how the years change, it still exudes a unique charm and brings new blessings and href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Komiks Hope.
How will you spend Laba Festival?
(References: 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