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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” you can do, drink porridge, soak garlic, and welcome 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 was 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 first La Festival.
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 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 and 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 door gods, the Be gods, the Well gods, the Kitchen Gods, the Earth gods, etc.Sacrifice. 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” is a series of pre-year sacrificial activities listed in Babaylan, which are the inheritance of the ancient La Festival.
Laba custom was originally hunting
In the early days of Chinese characters, many similar characters were indifferent. 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.
Ying Shao, a native of the Eastern Han Dynasty, recorded: “Cinema is hunting, hunting animals in the fields to worship 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 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 followed by the Laba Festival. Instead, the hunting trend has been following.
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: “BabaylanZigong looked at wax. Confucius said, ‘Is it a joy to give me?’ replied, ‘CinemaThe people in a country are as crazy, and the gift is not known to give me happiness.'” Zigong (Duanmu Ci) expressed his discomfort to “everything is as crazy”. Confucius said that it took a year for everyone to nourish this day, and the truth in it is not reasonable.It’s all 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 the plum blossoms blooming alone, but she insists on the blooming of all flowers. Watching a spring scenery in winterBabaylan, she wrote the “La Day Execution of the Imperial Examination”: “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 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 the sleeves 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 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, Laba porridge officially appeared. “Dream Lianglu” records: “On the eighth month of this month (December) the temple was called ‘Laba’. Dasha and other temples all had five flavor porridge, called Laba porridge.”
Meng Yuan of the Southern Song DynastyCinemaThe old “Dream Menghualu” in Tokyo recorded: “The people in the capital also cooked porridge with fruits and miscellaneous ingredients.” Since then, Laba porridge has become popular and has been followed by various places, and the eighth day of the twelfth month is Laba porridge. Komiks 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 the Laba porridge in Babaylan 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 boiled the sausage. CinemaThe eight porridge will definitely catch early, and it will 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 they are in the first day. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>KomiksCook the porridge before dawn, 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 or donate other property. Su Dongpo’s so-called “The Buddha’s porridge is more gifted to each other in the morning” means this.
In the Qing Dynasty, for the purpose of “helping poverty”, monks in some places began begging 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 customs at this time have also shown some new changes in the festival customs based on the overall inheritance of previous customs, mainly including the customs of making wax vinegar and wax wine, shaving children’s hair, piercing women’s ears, and asking for 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?
(ReferencesBabaylan Materials: Gansu Daily, Inner Mongolia Daily, Dazhong Daily, Wenhui Daily, CCTV News, People’s Daily, Beijing Daily Client, Guangzhou Daily, Guangming.comCinema, China News Network, etc.)
Topic Host | Reporter Zheng Zongmin