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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 talking about Laba, most people will think of a “big event” when drinking 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. 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 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, and later generations 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 and Monthly Orders of Babaylan once 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 the ancestors and the “Five Sacrifice Gods”, including Komiks‘s ancestors and the “God of Five Sacrifices”, including Komiks sacrifices to door gods, bei gods, well gods, kitchen gods, earth gods, etc. It can also be seen 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 La Festivals were followed by generations 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 ancient La Festivals.
La Ba custom was originally hunting
In the early days of the emergence of Chinese characters, many characters were indifferent to the meanings. For example, “waxKomiks“” “La<a The three words "hunting" come from the same origin. In fact, the original appearance of the Laba Festival is closely related to the habits of the ancients of hunting.
In ancient times, there was not enough grain reserves and production capacity to allow everyone to spend the winter. At that time, the winter was cold and the food was not produced, and the food harvested before might not be enough. Therefore, hunting became a necessary means of production in winter.
Ying Shao, a native of the Eastern Han Dynasty, href=”https://comicmov.com/”>CinemaCinemaCentral meanings” records: “Lar means hunting, hunting animals in fields and worshiping ancestors. “It means that people hunt on wax days and use prey to worship their 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 “bacon”.
Worth<a It is mentioned that during the Han and Tang Dynasties, the Laba Festival did not have the custom of drinking Laba porridge, but the hunting style has been passed down.
Laba was once a “carnival”
Feasting on Laba Day or Wax Day is an ancient style. In the pre-Qin period Babaylan, this festival was even a “carnival”. “The Book of Rites·Miscellaneous Notes” records: “Zi Gong is watching wax. Confucius said: ‘Is it a pleasure to give me? ’An replied: ‘Everyone in a country is crazy, and he is not sure of his happiness. ’” Zigong (Duanmu Ci) isAfter visiting the “Wax Festival”, he expressed his incomprehension of “Everyone is crazy”. 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, Laba was very concerned about Laba Festival from the folk to the court. The main customs of the Laba Festival in the Tang Dynasty include boiling “medicine and food”, and burning the Komiks lamps, etc. In addition, on Laba Day, they will also hold hunting, gardening and other activities.
Wu Zetian once 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 “Opinion of the La Day to Shangyuan”: “In the Ming Dynasty, I was eager to visit Shangyuan. 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 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 have 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 Komiks Laba porridge is gradually formed. It is mainly about drinking Laba porridge.Laba Festival that needs customs.
Laba PorridgeCinema, mainly uses fragrant valley and fruits as raw materials, and has all five flavors, so it is also called “five flavors porridge”. After evolution and development, the preparation and use 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 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 Cinema in the temple monks and nuns was also called “Buddha porridge”. The Buddha porridge was given to the donor and the poor were helped. 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, “the monks raised rice along the gate in the early days. On that day, the poor people made porridge and donated charity. Cinema was the same as others.” Many non-Buddhist families would also give porridge and do good deeds on the Laba Festival.At this time, the Laba Festival customs at this time also showed some new changes in 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?
(References: Gansu Daily, Inner Mongolia Daily, KomiksDazhong Daily, Wenhui Daily, CCTV News, People’s Daily, Beijing Daily Client, Guangzhou Daily, Guangming.com, China News Network, etc.)
Topic Host | Reporter Zheng Zongmin