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As the saying goes, “Cinema is the New Year after Laba”, 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 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’s Babaylan will hold the Babaylan Festival at the end of the year, which is to sacrifice prey to the ancestors and gods of heaven and earth, pray 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 heldCinema is called “La Day”. The La Festival in the Han Dynasty was on the third Xu day of December each year, and later generations 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 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 carried out sacrificial activities in the “commune” and prayed to the “Tianzong” for good weather in the coming year. 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.
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 the birth of the 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 storage 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 production method in winter.
Ying Shao, a native of the Eastern Han Dynasty, recorded: “La means hunting, hunting animals in fields to worship ancestors.” It means that people hunt on La Day and use their prey to worship 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 ancientwind. In the pre-Qin period, this festival was even a “carnival”. “The Book of Rites·Miscellaneous Notes”: Komiks “Zigong 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.'” Zigong (Duanmu Ci) expressed his discomfort to “everyone is like crazy”. BabaylanConfucius 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 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. Looking at a spring scenery in winter, she wrote “The Imperial Examination of the La Day”: “In the Ming Dynasty, we traveled to Shangyuan, and we were 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 my country, has the greatest fun on this festival. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>BabaylanDrinking wine, his poem “Waste Day” says: “I sing you so much, how much is it in the wine? I can’t tell you 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 the sleeves 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 east Komiks where you can 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 region. By the Song Dynasty, Laba porridge officially appeared. “Dream Lianglu” records: “On the eighth day of this month (December) the temple was called ‘Laba’. Dasha and other temples all had five flavor porridge, called Laba porridge.”
Meng Yuanlao of the Southern Song Dynasty recorded: “On the day of the capital, each family also cooked porridge with fruits and miscellaneous ingredients and ate it.” Since then, Laba porridge has become popular and has been followed by various places, and the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is the Laba porridge, which has gradually formed the main habit of drinking Laba porridge.The common Laba Festival.
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 of the twelfth lunar month. Some people on the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month<a The cooking started at night at Komiks to ensure that the porridge was cooked before dawn on the eighth day of the lunar month, because the ancients believed in the saying "The sooner the Laba porridge, the better." In the Babaylan Dynasty of the Song Dynasty, the Laba porridge cooked by monks and nuns in the temple was also called "Buddha porridge". The Buddha porridge was given to the donor and helped the poor. After receiving the Buddha's porridge at Babaylan, the donor will usually give back some money for lamps and oil or donate 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 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 would also give porridge to the Laba Festival.ref=”https://comicmov.com/”>KomiksPlease do good deeds.
The Laba Festival customs at this time also showed 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 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, Beijing Daily Client Cinema, Guangzhou Daily, Guangming.com, China News Network, etc.)
Topic Host | Reporter Zheng Zongmin