Laba Festival, commonly known as Laba, is the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. The ancients had a tradition of offering sacrifices to ancestors and gods and praying for good harvest and good luck. In some areas, they have the custom of drinking Laba porridge. The following is the origin and legend of Laba Festival that I compiled, hoping to help everyone.
Who invented Laba Festival?
The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is the traditional Laba Festival of Han nationality in China. On this day, most areas in China have the custom of eating Laba porridge. Laba porridge is made of eight kinds of fresh grains and fruits harvested in the same year, which is generally sweet porridge. However, many farmers in the Central Plains like to eat Laba salty porridge. In addition to rice, millet, mung bean, cowpea, peanut, jujube and other raw materials, porridge also contains radish, cabbage, vermicelli, kelp and tofu.
Laba Festival is also called Laba Festival, Laba Festival, Maharaja Festival or Buddha Light Festival. It turns out that in ancient times, people celebrated harvest and thanked ancestors and gods (including door gods, household gods, house gods, kitchen gods and well gods). In addition to ancestor worship activities, people have to chase the epidemic. This activity originated from Nuo in ancient times (the ritual of exorcising ghosts and avoiding epidemics in ancient times). One of the prehistoric medical methods was to exorcise ghosts and treat diseases. As a witchcraft activity, Xinhua and other areas in Hunan Province still have the custom of beating drums in the twelfth lunar month to drive away epidemics. Later, it evolved into a religious festival to commemorate the enlightenment of Buddha Sakyamuni. The Xia dynasty called Lari "Jiaping", the Shang dynasty called it "Qingsi" and the Zhou dynasty called it "Dala". Because it is held in December, it is called the twelfth lunar month, and La Worship is called the twelfth lunar month. The twelfth lunar month in the pre-Qin period is on the third day from winter to the future, and the twelfth lunar month in the Southern and Northern Dynasties is on the eighth day.
"Shuowen" contains: "Three days after the winter of the solstice, La Worship Hundred Gods will be on the defensive." It can be seen that the third garrison day after the winter solstice is December of the lunar calendar. Later, due to the intervention of Buddhism, December of the lunar calendar was changed to the eighth day of December, and it became a custom from then on.
Why the end of the year is called "La" has three meanings: one is "La", which means the alternation of old and new (recorded in Sui Shu Etiquette); Second, "wax hunters hunt together", which means that hunting in the wild can make animals sacrifice their ancestors and gods. "Wax" comes from "meat", which means to use meat as a "winter sacrifice"; Thirdly, it is said that "waxers will drive away the epidemic and welcome the spring", and Laba Festival is also called "Buddhist and Taoist Festival", also known as "Taoist Society". In fact, it can be said that the eighth day of December is the origin of Laba Festival. It is said that the founder of Buddhism practiced in the deep mountains and sat quietly for six years. He was so hungry that he wanted to end the pain. He happened to meet a shepherdess and gave him chyle. He sat cross-legged under the bodhi tree after dinner and became a Buddha in early December. To commemorate it, the "Buddhist Enlightenment Festival" was launched. Believers in China are very devout, so they merged with "La Ri" to form the "Laba Festival" and held a grand ceremony.
Legend of Laba Festival
Some people say that Laba Festival comes from the custom of "dressing up as a ghost with red beans". Legend has it that Zhuan Xu, one of the five emperors in ancient times, turned his three sons into evil spirits after their death and came out to scare the children. In ancient times, people generally believed in superstition and were afraid of ghosts and gods. They believe that because of the existence of epidemic ghosts, both adults and children suffer from strokes and are in poor health. These evil spirits are fearless, only afraid of red (red) beans, so there is a saying that "red beans play ghosts." Therefore, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, people use adzuki beans and adzuki beans to cook porridge to dispel the epidemic and welcome good luck.
Some people say that when Qin Shihuang built the Great Wall, all migrant workers were ordered to come. They couldn't go home for many years, so they relied on their families to deliver meals to them. Some migrant workers' homes are separated by Qian Shan Wanshui, and they can't transport food, which causes many migrant workers to starve to death at the site of the Great Wall. One year, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, migrant workers who had no food jointly accumulated a few handfuls of coarse grains, put them in a pot and cooked them into porridge. Everyone drank a bowl and finally starved to death under the Great Wall. In order to mourn the migrant workers who starved to death at the Great Wall construction site, people eat Laba porridge every year on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month.
Some people say that in the Western Jin Dynasty, there was a very lazy young man who always idled around and ate nothing, but his bride repeatedly advised him to be ineffective. However, by the end of the year1the eighth day of February, the family had stopped cooking and the young people were hungry. He searched the rice jar, flour bag and pots and pans at home, washed the leftover powder and edible leftovers into the pot and cooked a bowl of mushy porridge to drink. Since then, the local people have taken this opportunity to educate their children to cook porridge every year in Laba, which not only shows that they will not forget the virtue of their ancestors' diligence and thrift on Laba, but also hopes that the gods will bring a good year of ample food and clothing.
Some people say that Laba Festival stems from people's nostalgia for Yue Fei, a loyal minister. At that time, Yue Fei led troops to fight against gold in Zhuxian Town, which was in the severe winter of September. Yue Jiajun had no food and clothing, was hungry and cold, and the people sent porridge one after another. Yue Jiajun had a hearty meal of "thousand porridge" sent by the people, and the result was a great victory. It was the eighth day of December. After Yue Fei died, in order to commemorate him, people cooked porridge with miscellaneous grains and beans on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, which finally became a custom.
It is also said that Laba Festival originated in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. It is said that when Zhu Yuanzhang was in trouble and suffering in prison, he was hungry and cold. Zhu Yuanzhang actually found some seven or eight kinds of whole grains such as red beans, rice and red dates from the mouse hole in prison. Zhu Yuanzhang cooked these things into porridge. Because it was the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Zhu Yuanzhang called this pot of miscellaneous grains porridge Laba porridge. I enjoyed a delicious meal. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang pacified the world and became the emperor facing south. In order to commemorate that special day in prison, he designated it as Laba Festival and officially named the miscellaneous grains porridge he ate that day Laba porridge.
About the custom of Laba Festival in La Worship, there are many records in ancient books: "December 8 is the December of the lunar calendar. The villagers also beat drums and wore beards, which played a powerful role in driving away the epidemic. " "La Worship" was originally a reward ceremony for primitive ancestors to celebrate agricultural harvest, and it was an important festival of farming culture. Ying Shao's "Custom Pass" says: "The Book of Rites": A wax hunter kills animals to sacrifice ancestors. Or, "if you are a wax worker, you will receive it and the new one will be handed over, so you will get a big sacrifice." Its origin is very early, and it is recorded in the Book of Rites: "Yi people belong to wax. Wax also, cable also, December, gather everything and ask for it. " "Supplement to Biography of Historical Records and Huang San" also said: "Shennong in Yan Di used this as a field, so it was a wax sacrifice to heaven and earth." Xia Dynasty called it Jiaping, Yin Dynasty called it Qingsi, Zhou Dynasty called it Big Wax, and Han Dynasty changed it to Wax. The object of sacrifice is every eighth day: increase God first? Shennong, Shen? Hou Ji, Saturnalia? The god of celestial officials, the god of pillars and tables? Founded the Tianlu Society, a person who opened the way for painting, a cat and tiger god, a square god dike and a water god? Ditches, insect gods. La Worship in the pre-Qin period was held on the third day after the winter solstice, and gradually fixed on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month after the Southern and Northern Dynasties. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, this festival was covered with the color of Buddha. According to legend, before Sakyamuni became a Buddha, he never thought of becoming an ascetic monk, and as a result, he lost his head with hunger. A shepherdess mixed miscellaneous grains with wild fruits and cooked porridge with clear spring to save her. Sakyamuni pondered under the bodhi tree and finally became a Buddha on1February 8. Since then, Buddhism has designated this day as "Buddhism and Taoism Day", chanting to commemorate and becoming a festival. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, worshipping gods and buddhas replaced ancestor worship, celebrating harvest and expelling epidemic disasters, which became the main theme of Laba Festival. Its holiday customs are mainly cooking, giving away, tasting Laba porridge and holding Qingfeng food. At the same time, many people have been eager to celebrate the Spring Festival since then, busy killing pigs, making tofu, making wind fish and bacon with glue, and shopping for new year's goods. The atmosphere of "Year" has gradually become strong.
Expanding: Food Customs of Laba Festival
Laba porridge is also called "Qibao Wuwei porridge". China has a history of drinking Laba porridge for 1000 years. It first started in the Song Dynasty. On the day of Laba, no matter the court, the government, temples or homes for the benefit of the people will cook Laba porridge. In the Qing Dynasty, the custom of drinking Laba porridge became more popular. In the court, emperors, queens and princes distribute Laba porridge to civil and military ministers and attendants, and distribute rice and fruit to monasteries for monks to eat. In the folk, every household should also make Laba porridge to worship their ancestors; At the same time, family groups get together for dinner and give gifts to relatives and friends. There are many kinds of Laba porridge in China. Among them, Beiping is the most exquisite, and there are many items mixed in white rice, such as red dates, lotus seeds, walnuts, chestnuts, almonds, pine nuts, longan, hazelnuts, grapes, ginkgo, water chestnuts, mosses, roses, red beans and peanuts. There are no fewer than twenty kinds in all. On the night of the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, people began to get busy, washing rice, soaking fruits, peeling, removing stones and picking carefully, then cooking in the middle of the night, and then stewing with low fire until Laba porridge was cooked the next morning.
More sophisticated people must first carve fruits into human shapes, animals and patterns, and then cook them in a pot. More distinctive is to put "fruit lion" in Laba porridge. Fruit lion is a lion made of several kinds of fruits, with peeled and dried crisp dates as the lion's body, half walnut kernel as the lion's head, peach kernel as the lion's foot and sweet almond as the lion's tail. Then stick them together with sugar and put them in a porridge bowl, just like a little lion. If the bowl is bigger, you can put two lions or four little lions on it. More exquisitely, it is made of jujube paste, bean paste, yam, hawthorn cake and other foods of various colors into statues of the Eight Immortals, the birthday girl and Lohan. This decorative Laba porridge can only be seen on the altar of the former big temple.
Here are some famous formulas:
The recipe recorded in Chicken Ribs reads: "On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month in Ningzhou (now Fuxian County, Liaoning Province), people actually made rice porridge. They painted forest chestnuts and other colors on the rice porridge. These colors are flowers and birds, and even left them a legacy."
The recipe recorded in Jin Ping Mei: "(Suzhou and Zhou) japonica rice is cooked with various hazelnuts, pine trees, chestnuts, nuts, plum blossoms and white sugar."
The recipe recorded in the History of the Forbidden City in the Ming Dynasty: "A few days ago (in the Forbidden City in the Ming Dynasty), the red dates were broken and soaked. By the eighth day of August, glutinous rice, ginkgo, walnut kernels, chestnuts and rice were added to cook porridge for the Buddha, and the cooked porridge was distributed in houses, garden trees and well stoves."
The recipe recorded in Jia Qinglu: "(Suzhou) residents cook porridge with vegetables and fruits and mix it with Laba porridge; Or a monk or nun in debt is called Buddha porridge. "
The recipes in A Dream of Red Mansions: colorful Mi Dou and five kinds of fruits and vegetables (red dates, chestnuts, peanuts, Mongolian medicine and taro).
In the Song Dynasty, Wu wrote the Dream of Dreams for six years: "On the eighth day of the eighth month, the temple name was Laba. Dasha Temple and other places have five-flavored porridge, which is called' Laba porridge'. " At this time, Laba porridge has become a folk custom, but at that time, the emperor also used it to win over all the ministers. Guo Sun, a native of Yuan Dynasty, wrote a story about his visit to Yan Dou: "On December 8th, it was about rice congee, which was mixed with rice and fruit. More goods win, and this story follows the story of the Song Dynasty. " "Yongle Dadian" records: "It is the eighth day of the month, and the Zen family calls it Laba Festival, and cooks porridge for the Buddha." On the eighth day of/kloc-October/February, Qibao five-flavor porridge, namely "Laba porridge", was sent to various monasteries in Kaifeng, Tokyo. According to Meng Yuan's "Tokyo Dream China", on the eighth day of December, monasteries gave disciples seven treasures and five flavors porridge, which was called Laba porridge, also known as Buddha porridge. Lu You, a great poet in the Song Dynasty, said in his poem: "At present, Buddhism and porridge help each other, thinking that there are new things in Jiangcun." It's also about Laba sending porridge. The Southern Song Dynasty scholar's "Old Wulin Stories" said: "Cooking porridge with walnuts, pine nuts, milk, persimmons and chestnuts is called Laba porridge."
In the third year of Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty (A.D. 1725), Sejong changed the mansion east of imperial academy in Andingmen, Beijing into the Lama Temple. On the eighth day of Laba, in Wanfuge and other places in the palace, Laba porridge was cooked in a pot, and Lama monks were invited to recite scriptures, and then the porridge was distributed to palace ministers for tasting and eating to celebrate the festival. "Guangxu Shuntian Fuzhi" says: "On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Yonghe officials cooked porridge, customized it, and sent ministers to supervise it and cover the rice." Laba porridge is also called "Qibao porridge" and "Wuwei porridge". The earliest "Laba porridge" was made of red beans, which gradually enriched with the evolution and local characteristics. Fuchadun, a Qing man, called Laba porridge "a person who cooks porridge with yellow rice, white rice, glutinous rice, millet, water chestnut and peeled jujube paste". And dyed with external red peach kernel, almond, melon seeds, peanuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts, white sugar, brown sugar and exotic grapes. "Every seven days, you peel and wash the fruit and do it at night. At dawn, the porridge is cooked. Afternoon is not allowed except to worship Buddha first. There are also red dates, peach kernels and so on. Be made into lions, children, etc. To see the ingenuity, this is a distinctive Beijing.
Tianjin people cook Laba porridge, which is similar to Beijing's, and is made of lotus seeds, lilies, pearl rice, Italian glutinous rice, barley kernels, sticky glutinous rice, sticky yellow rice, kidney beans, mung beans, longan meat, longan meat, ginkgo, red dates and sweet osmanthus in syrup. , full of color, smell and taste. In recent years, black rice has been added. This Laba porridge can be used for dietotherapy, and has the effects of invigorating spleen, stimulating appetite, invigorating qi, calming nerves, clearing away heart fire and nourishing blood.
Shanxi Laba porridge, also known as eight-treasure porridge, is mainly made of millet, with cowpea, red bean, mung bean, jujube, sticky yellow rice, rice and glutinous rice. In southeastern Shanxi, cooking porridge with water is also one of the dietary customs. This kind of porridge is called fragrant rice, that is, red beans, cowpeas, sweet potatoes, peanuts, glutinous rice and persimmons on the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month.
On the day of Laba in the northern Shaanxi Plateau, besides all kinds of rice and beans, porridge is cooked with all kinds of dried fruits, tofu and meat. Usually cooked in the morning, sweet or salty, depending on people's tastes. If you eat at noon, you should cook some noodles in the porridge so that the whole family can get together for dinner. After eating, you should also put porridge on the door, on the stove and on the trees outside the door to ward off evil spirits and avoid disasters and welcome the agricultural harvest in the coming year. According to folklore, vegetables are forbidden in Laba on this day, saying that there are many weeds in the field after eating Lai crops. Laba people in southern Shaanxi want to eat miscellaneous porridge, which is divided into "five flavors" and "eight flavors" The former is cooked with rice, glutinous rice, peanuts, ginkgo and beans. The latter uses the above five raw materials to add diced meat, tofu and radish, and also adds seasonings. On Laba Festival, people not only eat Laba porridge, but also worship their ancestors and granaries with porridge.
Gansu people have traditionally cooked Laba porridge with grains and vegetables. After cooking, it is not only for family members to eat, but also distributed to neighbors to feed livestock. In the urban areas of Lanzhou and Baiyin, Laba porridge is boiled with rice, beans, red dates, ginkgo, lotus seeds, raisins, dried apricots, dried melons, walnuts, shredded green beans, sugar and diced meat. After cooking, it is first used to worship the door gods, kitchen gods, land gods and the god of wealth, and pray for good weather and good harvests in the coming year; Then give it to the neighbors and the last family will enjoy it. Wuwei, Gansu pays attention to "Sulaba", eating rice, lentil or glutinous rice, cooked with fried seeds and twist. Folklore calls it "bean porridge bubble".
People in Ningxia usually cook porridge with lentils, soybeans, red beans, broad beans, black beans, rice and potatoes as laba rice, and add "ears of wheat" cut into rhombic willow leaves with wheat flour or buckwheat flour, or "heads of birds" made into small round eggs, and then add chopped green onion oil before cooking. On this day, the whole family only ate laba rice instead of vegetables.
Most people in Xining, Qinghai are Han people, but Laba doesn't eat porridge, but eats wheat kernel rice. Boil freshly ground wheat grains with beef and mutton, add green salt, ginger skin, pepper, tsaoko, Miao Xiang and other condiments, and after a night of slow fire, the meat and wheat merge into a milky white shape. It smells good when the lid is opened in the morning.
Shandong's "Confucian Cuisine System" stipulates that there are two kinds of "Laba porridge", one of which is made of rice kernels, longan, lotus seeds, lilies, chestnuts, red dates and japonica rice, and some "porridge fruits" are added to the bowl, which are mainly carved into fruits of various shapes for ornament. This kind of porridge is specially prepared for the master of Confucius and the master of the zodiac. The other is cooked with rice, sliced meat, cabbage and tofu. It's for the servants of Confucius' family.
People in Henan eat laba rice, which is cooked with eight kinds of raw materials, such as millet, mung bean, cowpea, wheat kernel, peanuts, red dates and corn. When cooking porridge, add some brown sugar and walnut kernels to make porridge thick and fragrant, which means a bumper harvest next year.
Eating Laba porridge in Jiangsu is divided into sweet and salty, and the cooking method is the same. It's just that salty porridge is served with vegetables and oil. Suzhou people should add arrowheads, water chestnuts, walnuts, pine nuts, Gordon Euryale seeds, red dates, chestnuts, fungus, vegetables, Flammulina velutipes and so on when cooking Laba porridge. Li Fu, a scholar in Suzhou in the Qing Dynasty, once wrote a poem: "The porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month came from Brahma, and the seven treasures were harmonious and beautiful, with mixed flavors."
Zhejiang people usually cook Laba porridge with walnut kernel, pine nuts, Gordon Euryale seeds, lotus seeds, red dates, longan meat and litchi meat. Sweet and delicious, pray for a long life. It is said that this porridge cooking method was handed down from Nanjing, which contains some legends.
There are many people in Sichuan, and there are many ways to make Laba porridge, including sweet, salty and spicy, while rural people eat salty porridge, which is mainly made of soybeans, peanuts, diced meat, white radish and carrots. Strangers come here to taste, although do as the Romans do, but it is difficult to get used to it. Now many people in the city eat sweet porridge, which can be called different tastes. Laba is closely related to porridge. Drinking porridge in Laba can be regarded as a fancy and a level.
The production method of Hebei Laba porridge: soak white beans in advance (it is best to use them the first night and then the next day) until they are fat; Blanch white lotus seeds with hot water, remove the green core, put white beans and white beans in a boiling water pot for 20 minutes, then add rice, glutinous rice, wheat kernels, kudzuvine, jujube and Mi Dou, and remove the hard shell and underwear of chestnuts. Wash the above raw materials, put them into a pot, add enough water, boil them with strong fire, and then cook them slowly for 40 minutes with low fire until the porridge becomes sticky and the dates rot. After the porridge is cooked, add honey osmanthus and brown sugar (or cook brown sugar into sugar juice before adding it to the porridge) and mix well.
;