What are the traditional eating customs of Laba Festival?
What are the traditional eating customs of Laba Festival? Laba Festival, commonly known as "Laba", is the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. In some areas, it is customary to drink Laba porridge. Here are some customs of Laba Festival that I share with you, hoping to help you. What are the traditional eating customs of Laba Festival 1
1. Eating ice
On the day before Laba Festival, people usually scoop water in a steel basin to freeze, and when Laba Festival is over, they will take off the basin and break the ice into pieces. It is said that the ice on this day is magical, and you won't have a stomachache after eating it for a year.
2. Laba porridge
Laba porridge is also called "Qibao Wuwei porridge". The history of drinking Laba porridge in China has been more than 1 years. It first began in the Song Dynasty. On the day of Laba, whether it's the imperial court, the government, the temple or the people's house of Limin, Laba porridge will be cooked. In the Qing Dynasty, the custom of drinking Laba porridge was even more popular. At court, emperors, queens and princes all give laba porridge to ministers of civil and military affairs and attendants, and distribute rice and fruits 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 to eat and give gifts to relatives and friends. There are many varieties 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 chestnut, moss, roses, red beans, peanuts, etc., totaling no less than twenty kinds. On the night of the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, people began to get busy, washing rice, soaking fruits, peeling, removing stones, picking carefully, then starting to cook in the middle of the night, and then stewing with low fire until the next morning, when Laba porridge was cooked.
3. Laba garlic
From the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the atmosphere of the New Year is getting worse every day in old Beijing. In most parts of North China, the custom of soaking garlic with vinegar is called Laba garlic.
According to the old man, the word "Laba garlic" is homophonic with the word "calculate", which means that each firm should collect accounts on this day and calculate the income and expenditure of this year, so that it can be seen that the profit and loss, including foreign debts and foreign debts, should be calculated clearly on this day, and this is what "Laba calculate" is all about. The creditor who wants the debt on Laba's day will send a message to the family who owes him money, and he should be prepared to pay back the money. There is a folk proverb in Beijing: "Laba porridge, Laba garlic, the messenger who pays the bill;" Pay back the debt. " Later, if someone owed money to others, garlic was used instead of the word "calculate" to show taboo, and the word "calculate" was avoided. In fact, what was owed to others was to be paid back after all. Old Beijing is approaching the New Year's Pass. There are spicy dishes in the streets and alleys, but there are no laba garlic sellers. Why is this? Think about it. You have to shout when selling Laba garlic. How? Directly shout "Laba garlic!" The debtor's heart thumped when he heard the shouting. How come there are still shouts of debt collection in the street! Besides, who are you talking to as a small businessman? It's good that people don't count with you, so Laba garlic can't go down to the street and yell. All households make Laba garlic by themselves, and calculate for themselves first, how to spend this year.
purple garlic and rice vinegar are used to soak Laba garlic. Peel the garlic cloves, soak them in rice vinegar, put them in a small jar and seal them until New Year's Eve. The garlic cloves are bright green and fragrant with garlic and spicy acetic acid, which is the best seasoning for eating jiaozi and can also be used with cold dishes. It has a unique taste.
4. Laba bean
Laba bean is one of the traditional foods in Hunan Province of China, which has a history of hundreds of years. People often start to pickle it after beginning of winter every year and eat it after the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, so it is called "Laba bean". Its finished product has a special flavor and is extremely delicious, so it is very popular with people. However, since ancient times, it has always been a family or small workshop-style production, and it has been unable to become a food that consumers can enjoy all the year round due to seasonal constraints.
5. laba rice
6. Laba Tofu
"Laba Tofu" is a folk specialty in Qian County, Anhui Province. On Laba on the eve of the Spring Festival, that is, around the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, every household in Qian County will sun-dry tofu, which is called "Laba Tofu" by the people.
7. Laba noodles
In some places in northern China that produce little or no rice, people eat Laba noodles instead of Laba porridge. The next day, the whole family will eat Laba noodles on the morning of the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month.
local customs
1. Customs of Laba Festival in Shaanxi
After Laba porridge is cooked, you should worship God and worship your ancestors first. After that, you should give it to your relatives and friends, and you must send it out before noon. Finally, it is eaten by the whole family. The leftover Laba porridge, which is preserved after eating for a few days, is a good sign, taking its meaning of "more than one year". If you give porridge to poor people to eat, it is even more good for yourself. In some places that produce little or no rice, people eat laba noodles instead of laba porridge. Make minced meat with all kinds of fruits and vegetables, and roll out the noodles. On the morning of the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the whole family eats together.
2. Customs of Laba Festival in Gansu
Traditionally, cereals and vegetables are used to cook Laba porridge. After cooking, they are not only eaten by family members, but also distributed to neighbors and fed to livestock. Wuwei, Gansu pays attention to "Su Laba", eating rice thick rice, lentil rice or thick rice, and eating it with fried seeds and twist after cooking. Folklore calls it "bean porridge soaked".
3. Customs of Laba Festival in Xining
Laba Festival does not drink porridge, but eats wheat kernel rice. On the seventh night of the twelfth lunar month, the freshly ground wheat kernels are cooked with beef and mutton, with green salt, ginger skin, pepper, tsaoko, Miao Xiang and other condiments. After a night of slow fire, the wheat kernel rice is very fragrant and delicious.
4. Customs of Laba Festival in Jiangsu and Zhejiang
People in Jiangsu eat Laba porridge in sweet and salty ways. Laba porridge should be added with Chinese wolfberry, water chestnut, walnut kernel, pine nuts, Gordon Euryale seeds, red dates, chestnuts, fungus, vegetables, Flammulina velutipes and so on. If salty porridge is cooked, just add vegetables and oil to it.
Zhejiang people usually use walnut kernel, pine nuts, lotus seeds, red dates, longan meat and lychee meat to cook Laba porridge, which is sweet and delicious. It is said that this porridge cooking method has been passed down from Nanjing.
5. Customs of Laba Festival in Northwest China
Laba Festival in the northern Shaanxi Plateau, porridge is cooked with a variety of dried fruits, tofu and meat in addition to rice and beans. After eating, you should also put porridge on the door, the stove and the trees outside the door to ward off evil spirits and avoid disasters and welcome the bumper agricultural harvest in the coming year. Moreover, Laba is forbidden to eat vegetables on this day. If you eat vegetables on this day, there will be more weeds in the crops. On Laba Day, people not only eat Laba porridge, but also worship ancestors and granaries with porridge.
6. Customs of Laba Festival in Ningxia
When cooking laba rice, rice and potatoes are usually cooked with all kinds of beans, and then "ears of wheat" cut into rhombic willow leaves with wheat flour or buckwheat flour, or "sparrow heads" made into small round eggs, and chopped green onion oil is added before cooking. Like northern Shaanxi, the whole family only ate laba rice, not vegetables.
7. Customs of Laba Festival in Beijing
Laba porridge in Beijing can be said to be the most exquisite. There are many things mixed in white rice, such as red dates, lotus seeds, walnuts, chestnuts, almonds, pine nuts, longan, grapes, ginkgo, moss, roses, red beans, peanuts, etc. There are no fewer than 2 kinds. People began to wash rice, soak fruit, peel and core on the night of the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, and began to stew with low fire at midnight. Laba porridge was not cooked until the next morning.
four kinds of special people choose to eat Laba porridge
1. Patients with diabetes mainly eat oats
Oats can reduce the concentration of cholesterol in blood, which can slow down the rise of blood sugar value after eating oats, and can inhibit the rise of blood sugar value after adding oats to carbohydrate foods. Therefore, for patients with diabetes and diabetes complicated with cardiovascular diseases, oats and buckwheat can be selected as main ingredients.
2, pregnant women are suitable for soft glutinous porridge
3, the elderly eat porridge and put more beans
Putting more soybeans in Laba porridge is helpful to prevent osteoporosis. The gastrointestinal function of the elderly is weakened, Laba porridge is just soft, rotten and easy to digest, and it is rich in dietary fiber, which can increase intestinal peristalsis and play a certain role in preventing senile constipation.
4. Amy drinks porridge oil
Many women like to drink Laba porridge for beauty, but there is also a beauty secret here, that is, don't give up porridge oil. In fact, porridge oil is the thick liquid that floats on the porridge surface when it is boiled repeatedly, also known as rice oil. Chinese medicine believes that porridge oil tastes sweet and flat. If you can drink a bowl of rice porridge every day, black and thin people will be fat and white in less than 1 days. What are the traditional eating customs of Laba Festival? 2
Since ancient times, Laba has been used as a sacrificial ceremony to worship ancestors and gods (including door gods, household gods, house gods, kitchen gods and well gods), hoping for a bumper harvest and good luck. According to the Book of Rites, La Worship was "the year of December, where everything was gathered together and sought after." The Xia Dynasty called La Ri "Jiaping", the Shang Dynasty "Qing Si" and the Zhou Dynasty "Da Wax". Because it is held in December, it is called the twelfth lunar month, and La Worship is called the twelfth lunar month.
There are many folk legends about the origin of Laba Festival, and the most common ones are three versions.
Legend of Laba 1
Among the legends about the origin of Laba Festival, one of the most widely circulated and recognized legends is that the herdess chyle saved the Buddha.
It is said that the Buddha Sakyamuni practiced in the deep mountains, and after six years of sitting quietly, he still got nothing, and he was skinny with hunger. One day he wanted to bathe in the river to clear his head, but after bathing, he was too weak to climb back to the shore.
At this moment, a shepherdess passed by, pulled him ashore and gave him a bowl of porridge boiled with rice and chestnuts. After eating, the Buddha was full of energy and came to the bodhi tree to wake up. This day happens to be the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month.
From then on, Buddhist disciples called Laba the "Buddhist Enlightenment Festival". At the same time, on Laba Day, porridge was regarded as a good medicine. Every year, temples offered porridge to Buddhists on Laba Day and gave it to the world. Affected by this, the custom of eating porridge on Laba Festival has gradually formed among the people in China.
Ci Hai holds this view: "Laba is a Buddhist festival. According to legend, the eighth day of December in the summer calendar is Sakyamuni's enlightenment day, and Buddhist temples in Han areas of China often hold memorial activities such as chanting on this day ..."
Legend of Laba II
Legend of Laba Festival II is based on people's memory of Yue Fei, a loyal minister.
In those years, Yue Fei led his troops to fight against gold in Zhuxian Town. It was in the severe winter of September. Yue Jiajun was starving and cold, and all the people sent porridge one after another. Yue Jiajun had a hearty meal of "thousands of porridge" sent by the people, and returned with a great victory. It was the eighth day of December. After Yue Fei's death, 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.
Legend of Laba III
Legend of Laba Festival III is related to Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming emperor.
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang was in trouble and suffered in the prison. At that time, he was cold and hungry, and he dug out seven or eight kinds of miscellaneous grains such as red beans, rice and red dates from the mouse hole in the prison. Zhu Yuanzhang boiled 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 emperor facing south. In order to commemorate that special day in prison, he designated this day as Laba Festival and officially named the miscellaneous grain porridge he ate that day as Laba porridge.
Up to now, people have different views on the origin of Laba Festival. Apart from these three kinds, there are "lazy couples sit idle and eat mountains", "cooking porridge to worship Shennong" and "sacrificing eight wax gods" and so on. It can only be said that the origin of Laba Festival varies from generation to generation, and what remains unchanged is the inheritance of a cultural tradition.