The Lapa Festival, also known as Lapa, originated from one of our traditional Chinese festivals, so named because the date is celebrated on the eighth day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar, the eighth day of the eighth month of the Lunar calendar.

The original meaning is to worship ancestors and gods, pray for a good harvest, good luck and avoid evil spirits. In China, there is a custom of drinking congee on the Lunar New Year's Day.

Drinking congee on Laha

Origin and History

In ancient China, Laha was an important ritual. Cai Yong of the Han Dynasty said in his "Dictum", "La is the great sacrifice at the end of the year." The Qin and Han dynasties used the day of the 11th day of the 12th month to celebrate La. The meat part of the said text: "La, after the winter solstice three Hundred Days of La sacrifices to all the gods." Zhoujiatai Qin Jian "Qin Ershi first year view of the day" wooden documents: "to December wuxu Jia Ping, the month does not end four days."

In the ancient classic "Book of Rites", there is "Lah, also, the succession, the new and the old, so the big sacrifice to report the work." Meaning: Lunar New Year is the day to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new, hold a grand celebration is in order to pay back to the ancestors of the year's harvest; because Lunar New Year festival held in December (ugly month), so the tradition down to the end of the winter in the beginning of spring, the new and old at the time of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar, called "Lunar New Year".

Lapa

There are eight objects of the wax festival in the Zhou rituals: first Scrooge, Si Scrooge, Nong, Post Table, Tiger (cat), Fang, Shuiyong, and Insects. The first three are generally regarded as the gods of agriculture or the ancestors who have developed and merited agriculture; the postal table, the workshop, and the water yong represent the agricultural infrastructure; the tiger hunts wild boars, the cat hunts rats, and the insects are hoped that they will not become a plague. Laha congee, a mixture of various kinds of grains, is a legacy of this agricultural sacrifice. Suiyong sacrifices evolved into the city god culture of various places.

One of the main purposes of the sacrifice is to avoid evils and drive away epidemics, and the custom of beating drums to drive away epidemics in the month of Lunar New Year still exists in places such as Xinhua, Hunan Province. As for the meaning of "La", there are different ways of saying it:

"La" means "together", and "La" means to offer sacrifices to the gods; "La" means "hunting", and "La" means "hunting", and "La" means "hunting", and "La" means "hunting". After Buddhism was introduced to China in the 1st century AD, around the Xiaoliang period, Chinese Buddhism will be designated as a day to commemorate Siddhartha Gautama's attainment of enlightenment, all the monasteries in this day to recite the scriptures, cooking congee in honor of the Buddha, that is, Lapa congee. Qing Dynasty, the Yonghegong Lapa ceremony is extremely grand. Yonghe Palace has a diameter of 2 meters, 1.5 meters deep ancient copper cauldron, weighing about 4 tons, dedicated to boiling congee. The first day of the waxing moon, the Palace General Administration of the House of Representatives to send the Secretary of the congee material and dry firewood to the Yonghe Palace.

The porridge material varieties, there are top cream, mutton diced and grains and cereals, as well as a variety of dried fruits, etc., to the night of the fifth ready, the sixth emperor sent ministers together with the Ministry of the Interior General Manager Minister, led by more than three officials and civil servants to the temple to supervise the weighing of grain, transport firewood. Early in the morning on the seventh day, the emperor sent the Minister of supervision of porridge ordered to build a fire, and has been monitoring to the early morning of the eighth day, porridge all boiled until. At this time, the emperor sent for porridge minister led officials to start in front of the Buddha for porridge, palace lights shine, smoke curls, drums and music, all lamas into the hall chanting, and then the porridge was offered to the court, while canned and sealed, with a fast horse sent to the Chengde Palace and all over the country. Until the dawn after the porridge, the ceremony came to an end.

According to historical records, each pot of congee with millet 12 stone, *** boiled 6 pots. The first pot for Buddha, the second pot dedicated to the emperor and the palace, the third pot to the princes and nobles and big lamas, the fourth pot to the civil and military ministers and feudal officials in the provinces, the fifth pot to the Yonghegong all lamas, the sixth pot as alms.

The Taoist book "Chisongzi Chapter Calendar" records five waxing days: the first day of the first month of the Heavenly Lunar New Year (Spring Festival), the fifth day of the fifth month of the Earthly Lunar New Year (Dragon Boat Festival), the seventh day of the seventh month of the moral Lunar New Year (eve of the seventh month), the first day of the tenth month of the people's year of Lunar New Year (Cold Clothes Festival), and the eighth day of the eighth month of December of the Hauwang Lunar New Year (Lunar New Year Day), for the Five Emperors to calculate the birth of the people of YanYi's day.

Customs of Lapa Festival

China

There is a custom of drinking Lapa congee on this day. It is mainly practiced in the vast areas around Jiangnan and Northwest China.

Brewing Laba garlic is a custom in northern China. Lahai garlic refers to soaking garlic in vinegar on the day of Lahai. Around the time of the Spring Festival, the garlic cloves, which have been soaked in vinegar for more than twenty days, will take on a greenish or turquoise color, which may vary slightly depending on the variety of garlic, the vinegar and the environment in which it is placed. The vinegar used to soak the garlic is known as Laba vinegar, and by the time the garlic cloves turn green, the vinegar also has the spicy flavor of garlic. Around the Spring Festival, it is customary to eat dumplings in the north, but eating them with Laha garlic and dipping them in Laha vinegar is a unique custom around the Spring Festival. In addition to eating on the dumplings, there are also used Laha garlic to mix gazpacho.

Tofu is one of the traditional Anhui folk dishes. Between the eve of the Lahai Festival, the tofu is made in the sun.

The ballad of Lahai

Children, children, don't be greedy, after Lahai is the year.

The congee of the eighth day of the lunar calendar is for a few days, and it is the twenty-third day of the lunar calendar.

Twenty-three days, sugar melons are sticky, twenty-four days, the house is swept,

twenty-five days, tofu is made, twenty-six days, pork is stewed,

twenty-seven days, the New Year's chickens are slaughtered, twenty-eight days, flour is made,

twenty-nine days, steamed buns are made, thirty nights, the night stays up,

the first day of the New Year is twisted and turned, and there are dumplings on New Year's Eve every year.