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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 Cinema has three “big things” to do, drinking porridge, soaking garlic, and welcoming the New Year!
When it comes to 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. Komiks “Records of the Grand Historian: The Basic Annals of Qin”: “The first year of the tenth year of the tenth 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.” The large-scale sacrificial activities in the twelfth lunar month have become the customary atmosphere of the agreement 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 once recorded that the emperor at that time carried out sacrificial activities in the “commune” and prayed to the “Tianzong”BabaylanThe next year, the weather will be good. The objects they worship include ancestors and the “Five Sacrifice 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.
KomiksThe 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. BabaylanThe three words “wax”, “wax”, 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 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, and hunting in fields and hunting to sacrifice animals to ancestors.” It means that people hunt on La Day and use prey to worship their ancestors. The meat that cannot be eaten at this time will be preserved by air-dried, marinated, etc. to survive the cold winter. 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 pleasure to give me?” He replied: Komiks‘All people in a country are crazy, and they are not known for their happiness.'” Zigong (Duanmu Ci) expressed his discomfort to “all are crazy” after visiting the “Wax Festival”. 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, people from the people to the palace paid great attention to Laba. The main festivals of the Laba Festival in the Tang Dynasty include cooking “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. KomiksWatching a spring scenery in winter, she wrote “The La Day Announcement to the Shangyuan”: “In the Ming Dynasty, we travel to Shangyuan, and we are eager to hear 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 Cinema also had the nature of purchasing New Year’s goods for the New Year. The poem “Da Wax” by Pei Xiu of Jin says: “The scale collection is divided into staggered trade and migration in the capital. The flowers chase each other and turn into curtains. There are meat like a hill, and 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 DynastyCinema
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, KomiksLaba PorridgeBabaylan officially made its debut. Dreams”The temple is called “Laba” on the eighth day of this month (December) and the temples are all equipped with five-flavor porridge, called Laba porridge.” “The Menghualu of Tokyo” by Meng Yuanlao of the Southern Song Dynasty recorded: “On the day of the capital, each family also cooks porridge with fruits and miscellaneous ingredients and eats it.” Since then, Laba porridge has become popular and has been imitated in various places. The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is the Laba day, and gradually formed 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 the theme of health care Babaylan.
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 the saying that “the sooner the Laba porridge, the better.”
In the Song Dynasty, the Laba porridge cooked by monks and nuns in Cinema was also called “Buddha porridge”. The Buddha porridge was given to the donor, and the Komiks were helped to 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, in Yanqing, Beijing, “Monks raised rice along the gate in the early days. On that day, they made porridge and donated to the poor, and were the same as others.” Many non-Buddhist families would also give porridge and do good deeds on the Laba Festival.
The Laba Festival at this time is based on the overall inheritance of previous customs, and it also shows some new changes in the festival 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 depths of Chinese people’s memories. No matter how time changes, it still exudes a unique charm, bringing 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, Beijing Daily Client, Guangzhou Daily, Guangming.com, China News Network, etc.)
Topic Host | Reporter Zheng Zongmin