The Origin and Changes of the Custom of Laba Porridge The Laba Festival, also known as Laba Festival, Laba Festival, Prince's Festival or Buddha's Enlightenment Day, was originally an ancient celebration of harvest and thanks to ancestors and gods (including door gods and household gods) , house god, kitchen god, well god), later evolved into a religious festival to commemorate the enlightenment of Buddha Sakyamuni. In the Xia Dynasty, it was called "Jiaping", in the Shang Dynasty, it was "Qingsi", and in the Zhou Dynasty, it was called "Daba". Because it was held in December, it was called the month of December, and the day of the wax festival was called the day of December. In the pre-Qin Dynasty, the twelfth lunar month was the third full day after the winter solstice, but it was only fixed on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month starting from the Northern and Southern Dynasties.
The origin and legend of the Laba Festival
"Shuowen" records: "Three days after the winter solstice, sacrifices are made to the gods." It can be seen that the third day after the winter solstice was once the festival of Laba. day. Later, due to the intervention of Buddhism, the twelfth lunar month was changed to the eighth day of December, and it has been a custom since then.
Why is the month at the end of the year called "La"? It has three meanings: one is "the wax ones are connected", which means the alternation of the old and the new (recorded in "Sui Book of Etiquette"); the other is "the wax ones are hunting together", which refers to hunting in the field to obtain animals for worshiping ancestors and gods, " "La" comes next to "meat", which means using meat for "winter sacrifice"; the third saying is "those with wax ward off epidemics and welcome the spring" (recorded in "Jingchu Sui Shi Ji")). The Laba Festival is also called the "Buddha Enlightenment Festival", also known as the "Enlightenment Meeting". In fact, it can be said that the eighth day of December is the origin of the Laba Day. According to legend, the founder of Buddhism, Sakyamuni, practiced deep in the mountains and meditated for six years. He was so hungry that he was as thin as wood. He wanted to give up this suffering. He happened to meet a shepherdess who gave him milk. After eating, he sat cross-legged under the Bodhi tree. On the eighth day of the lunar month, he became enlightened and became a Buddha. To commemorate this, the "Buddha Enlightenment Festival" was established. Out of piety, Chinese believers merged it with the "Laba Day" to form the "Laba Festival", and also held grand ceremonial activities.
On Laba Festival, it is popular among the people to drink Laba porridge. There are many stories spread among the people about the origin of eating Laba porridge.
It is said that during the Western Jin Dynasty, there was a very lazy young man who always idled around and had nothing to do. His newlywed wife tried to persuade her to no avail. However, on the eighth day of December at the end of the year, the family ran out of food, and the young man was very hungry. , searched the rice jars, flour bags and pots and jars at home, washed the leftover powder and edible debris into the pot, cooked a bowl of mushy porridge and drank it. From then on, I thought hard, regretted and made up my mind. Change your past mistakes. Local people use this to educate their children and cook porridge and drink it every Laba Festival, which not only means that they will not forget the virtues of diligence and thrift of their ancestors on the Laba Festival, but also hope that the gods will bring a good year with plenty of food and clothing.
One theory is that Yue Fei was framed by a traitor and his military rations were deducted. When the people heard the news, every household sent them porridge and rice, and Yue's army ate them together. This day happens to be the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. From now on, people will cook Laba porridge to remember Yue Fei and the Yue family army. In the Song Dynasty, eating Laba porridge was the most popular. No matter the palace, government, monasteries or people's homes, they all competed to cook Laba porridge. "Old Wulin Events" records: "On December 8th, monasteries and families use walnuts, pine nuts, mushrooms, persimmons, chestnuts, etc. to make porridge, which is called 'Laba porridge'." It is also called "five-flavor porridge" or "eight-treasure porridge." .
It is also said that Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was herding sheep for the rich man when he was a child and often went hungry. One day he found a mouse hole in his room and wanted to catch a mouse and cook it to satisfy his hunger, so he reached out and dug it deep. , and found that there were rice, corn, beans and other accumulated grains of mice. He cooked these grains into a pot of porridge, which tasted very sweet. Later, when he became emperor, he was tired of eating delicacies from the mountains and seas. On the day of Laba, he thought of a pot of cereal porridge, so he ordered the imperial chef to cook the porridge with all the cereals and eat it, and named it "Laba porridge".
Laba Diet Customs
As for the Laba Festival, there are many records in ancient books: "December 8 is the Laba Day. Villagers beat thin drums, wear beards, and perform Vajra Power "The soil is used to drive away epidemics." In the Tang and Song Dynasties, this festival was cast as a sacred and Buddhist color. According to legend, before Sakyamuni became a Buddha, he gave up all desire and practiced asceticism and fainted from hunger. A shepherdess mixed grains with wild fruits and cooked porridge in a clear spring to revive him. Sakyamuni meditated hard under the Bodhi tree, and finally attained enlightenment and became a Buddha on December 8. From then on, Buddhism designated this day as the "Day of Buddha's Enlightenment", chanting sutras to commemorate it and forming a festival to commemorate it. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, worshiping gods and Buddhas had replaced worshiping ancestors, celebrating harvests, and driving away epidemics and disasters, and became the main theme of the Laba Festival. The main festival customs include cooking, giving away, tasting Laba porridge, and celebrating family harvests. At the same time, many people have since kicked off the Spring Festival. They are busy killing New Year pigs, making tofu, making wind fish and bacon, and purchasing New Year goods. The "New Year" atmosphere is gradually getting stronger.
Laba porridge is also known as five-flavor porridge, Qibao porridge, chylo porridge, fragrant porridge, Buddha porridge or longevity porridge. It is made of various rice (glutinous rice, rice, corn, yellow rice, sorghum rice, black rice), Various beans (kidney beans, adzuki beans, mung beans, soybeans, cowpeas, lentils), various dried fruits (jujubes, chestnuts, almonds, peanuts, walnuts, lilies, longans, lotus seeds, sesame seeds, green and red silk), mixed with tofu, Made from boiled potatoes, meat and vegetables. It mainly provides offerings to Buddhas and monks at the "Buddha Bathing Ceremony". It also distributes alms to relatives, friends, devout men and women, and gives alms to the poor and homeless. As this porridge spreads, more than a hundred recipes have appeared in various places, showing the wisdom of the working people and their tireless pursuit of delicious food.
The following are several famous recipes:
The recipe recorded in "Chicken Ribs": "On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month in Ningzhou (today's Fuxian County, Liaoning Province), people actually made white porridge. Use forest chestnuts and the like, dyed with various colors, as flowers, birds and elephants, and sent to each other."
The recipe recorded in "Wulin Old Things": "(Hangzhou) temples and people use walnuts, pine nuts, and persimmons. Chestnuts and the like are used to make porridge, which is called Laba porridge.
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The recipe recorded in "Jin Ping Mei": "(Northern Jiangsu) Japonica rice is topped with various hazelnuts, pine, chestnuts, nuts, plum osmanthus, and white sugar porridge. "
The recipe recorded in "History of the Ming Palace": "(In the Ming Palace), smash the red dates and soak them in soup in the first few days. On the morning of the eighth day of the lunar month, add japonica rice, ginkgo, walnut kernels, chestnuts, and water chestnuts. Boil porridge and offer it in front of the Buddha, and distribute the cooked porridge on the roof of the house, on the trees in the garden, and on the well stove. "
The recipe recorded in "Qing Jia Lu": "(Suzhou) residents add vegetables and fruits to rice to cook porridge, and mix it into Laba porridge; or if they have debts from monks and nuns, it is called Buddha porridge. ”
The recipe recorded in "A Dream of Red Mansions": rice and beans of various colors plus five kinds of vegetables and fruits (red dates, chestnuts, peanuts, Mongolia, and taro).
The recipe recorded in "Yanjing Chronicles": "(Beijing) Laba porridge uses yellow rice, white rice, glutinous rice, millet, water chestnut rice, chestnuts, red river beans, Quying jujube paste, etc., combined Boiled in water, for external use