La Ba Festival, on the eighth day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar, is an ancient tradition of sacrificing to ancestors and gods to pray for a good harvest in the coming year. According to legend, this is the day when Sakyamuni attained enlightenment, one of the grand festivals of Buddhism, which later merged into the Lunar New Year's Day that we celebrate today. The month of waxing is known as the "month of waxing", and "waxing" has three meanings: one is "waxing, then also", meaning the change of the old and the new; the second is "wax hunter *** hunting ", meaning hunting animals, "winter sacrifice" meat, ancestor worship and god worship; three is "waxing, anti-epidemic, welcome spring". All these meanings are related to sacrifices, and verify the fact that ancient China held grand sacrifices in the twelfth month of the lunar calendar. According to the Records of the Rites - Suburban Sacrifice, La Ri is "the year of December, set all things and seek food." In the Xia Dynasty, it was called "Jia Ping", and in the Shang Dynasty, it was called "Qing Si". In the Zhou Dynasty, it was called "Great Wax", which is also the origin of the month of Lunar New Year. This day in the month of Lunar New Year was called "Lunar New Year". In the pre-Qin period, it was stipulated that the wax festival should be celebrated on the third day after the winter solstice. The Shuo Wen also recorded: "On the third day of the winter solstice, the Lunar Sacrifice was offered to all the gods." With the introduction of Buddhism to China, Buddhists set the date of Siddhartha Gautama's attainment of enlightenment on the Wax Festival in order to expand the influence of Buddhism in China. Later, due to the intervention of Buddhism, the two festivals were merged, making the Lunar New Year Festival gradually become a festival valued by everyone. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the eighth day of the Lunar New Year was fixed as the Lapa Festival. According to Buddhism, the Buddha Shakyamuni went through six years of austerity before he became the Buddha, and his body gradually became extremely thin after a solar eclipse. He later realized that he was clinging to austerities and that it was only the physical body that suffered. There was no way to fully realize it, and he adjusted his method of practice. The cowherd by the river, seeing the Buddha rise, immediately milked the cow, steamed it into food mince, and offered it to the Buddha as an offering. Sakyamuni received the food mince offered by the shepherdess every day. After one month, he regained his strength and attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, which happened to be the eighth day of the Lunar New Year. Later, the Lapa congee that everyone drank on Lapa Day was evolved from the minced meat offered to the Buddha by the cowgirls.