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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 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 are the differences between the ancients Komiks? 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, which means using prey to worship ancestors and the 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 La Festival for the first time.
The day of holding the La Festival is called the “La Day”. The time of the La Festival in the Han Dynasty is BabaylanOn the third day of December every year, the 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 for celebrating the harvest and praying for ancestors and gods at the end of the year.
The Cinema Records and Monthly Orders recorded that the emperor at that time carried out sacrificial activities in the “commune” and prayed to the “Tianzong” for the next year’s weather and rain.By the way, the objects they worship include ancestors and the “Five Sacrifice God”, including sacrifices of the opposite gate god, the Bego god, the Well god, the Kitchen God, the Earth god, etc. It can also be seen from this that the names and objects of the “La Festival” were complex at that time, and there was no dedicated object of the sacrifice of Cinema.
The customs of the La FestivalBabaylan 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 emergence of Chinese characters, many similar characters were indifferent. The three words “wax”, “wax” and “hunting” come from the same origin of Cinema. In fact, the Laba Festival’s most early appearance 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. In the winter days at that time, Cinema was frozen in cold places and could not 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 custom of drinking Laba porridge was not used on the Laba Festival. Instead, the hunting style has been following the Babaylan.
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 joy to give me?’ replied, ‘Everyone in a country is like crazy, and the joy to give me is not known.'” Zi Gong (Duanmu Ci) expressed his discomfort to “all like 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 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 wrote the “La Day Execution of the Imperial Examination to Shangyuan”: “In the Ming Dynasty, the fire was urgently reveling in spring. Flowers must be released overnight, don’t wait for the morning breeze to blow.”
Tao Yuanming, the first pastoral poet in our country, was The greatest joy of this festival is drinking. His poem “Wax Day” says: “I sing you so much, how much is it in the wine. KomiksI can’t tell much, there are strange songs in the mountains.” During the wax Day, I recite poems with wine, and there are endless joy.
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 food 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”. The temples such as DaCinema are all equipped with five flavor porridge, called Laba.Eight porridge. ”
Meng Yuan of the Southern Song DynastyCinema The old “Dream of Tokyo” records: “The people of the capital also cook porridge with fruits and miscellaneous materials and eat them. “Since then, Laba porridge became popular all the time, and all over the country followed suit. The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month was gradually formed. The Laba Festival, which is mainly based on drinking Laba porridge.
LabaBabaylanPorridge 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 materials of Laba porridge are more colorful, and Laba porridge in various places have its own characteristics. In addition, Laba porridge has evolved from Laba porridge, 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. Before the eighth day, Babaylan caught fire. Some people started cooking on the evening of the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month to ensure that the porridge was cooked before the 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 temples was also called “Buddha porridge”. The Buddha porridge was given to the donor and helped the poor. After receiving the Buddha porridge, the donor would give back some money for gas or donate other property. Su Dongpo called ” href=”https://comicmov.com/”>CinemaToday, the Buddha’s porridge is more and more,” which means this.
KomiksIn 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. The “Yanqing County Chronicle” of Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty recorded that in Yanqing, Beijing, “the early stage of monks in the monks in the early stages of the period of time.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 also shown some new changes in the festival customs based on the overall inheritance of past customs, mainly including making wax vinegar and wax wine, shaving children’s hair, piercing women’s ears, and asking names.
The Laba Festival customs have been deeply imprinted in the memory of Chinese people. No matter how the years change, it still exudes unique charm and brings new blessings and hopes.
How will you spend Laba Festival?
(References: Gansu Daily, Inner Mongolia Daily, DaCinemaZhong Daily, Wenhui Daily, CCTV News, People’s Daily, Beijing Daily href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Komiks Client, Guangzhou Daily, Guangming.com, China News Network, etc.)
Topic Host | Reporter Zheng Zongmin