in memory of Sakyamuni.
the origin of laba porridge
on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Chinese people have the custom of eating laba porridge. It is said that Laba porridge came from India.
Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, was originally the son of King Sudoku in the northern part of ancient India (present-day Nepal). He saw that all living beings were suffering from physical and mental illness, and he was dissatisfied with the theocratic rule of Brahmins at that time, giving up the throne and becoming a monk. After six years of asceticism, he became a Buddha under the bodhi tree on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. During these six years of asceticism, I only ate one hemp and one meter a day. Later generations did not forget his sufferings and ate porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month every year as a souvenir. "Laba" became the "Buddha's Inauguration Day". "Laba" is a grand festival of Buddhism. Before liberation, Buddhist temples all over the country held Buddhist bathing meetings and chanted scriptures, and imitated the legend of a herdess offering chyle before Sakyamuni became a Taoist, and cooked porridge with fragrant valleys and fruits to offer to the Buddha, which was called "Laba porridge". Laba porridge was presented to disciples and good men and women, and it became a custom among the people in the future. It is said that in some monasteries, before the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, monks held alms bowls along the street and cooked the collected rice, chestnuts, dates, nuts and other materials into Laba porridge and distributed it to the poor. Legend has it that you can get the blessing of Buddha after eating it, so the poor call it "Buddha porridge" Lu You's poem in the Southern Song Dynasty said: "Today, Buddha porridge is more mutually beneficial, and it is opposite that Jiangcun saves new things." It is said that there is a "rice stack building" for storing leftovers in Tianning Temple, a famous temple in Hangzhou. Usually, monks in the temple dry the leftovers every day, accumulate a year's surplus food, and cook them into Laba porridge for believers on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. It is called "Fushou porridge" and "Fude porridge", which means that they can increase their happiness and longevity after eating them. It can be seen that monks at that time cherished the virtue of food.
Laba porridge was cooked with adzuki beans and glutinous rice in ancient times, and then the materials gradually increased. People in the Southern Song Dynasty carefully wrote "Old Wulin Stories" and said: "It is called Laba porridge to make porridge with walnuts, pine nuts, milk mushrooms, persimmon mushrooms and persimmon chestnuts." Up to now, people in the vast areas of Jiangnan, Northeast and Northwest China still have the custom of eating Laba porridge, which is rare in Guangdong. The materials used are different, and glutinous rice, red beans, dates, chestnuts, peanuts, ginkgo, lotus seeds and lilies are often used to cook sweet porridge. There are also longan, longan meat and candied fruit that are cooked. Eating a bowl of steaming Laba porridge in winter is delicious and nutritious, and it can really increase happiness and longevity.
★ "Laba porridge, you can't finish it, and you will get a bumper harvest after eating Laba porridge". The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is a traditional folk festival in China-"Laba Festival". On this day in Guanzhong area, every household should cook a pot of "Laba porridge" and have a good meal. Not only adults and dolls eat it, but also feed some animals, chickens and dogs, and put some on doors, walls and trees for good luck.
The custom of eating "Laba porridge" on Laba Festival has a long history, and it has been rising since human beings entered the agricultural society. In ancient times, "wax" meant sacrifice. As far back as the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, China had the habit of sacrificing heaven and earth, gods and ancestors together, and called this comprehensive sacrifice "joint sacrifice". This kind of sacrifice expresses a simple and kind psychological activity of ancient people, which means: you should thank the gods for getting plenty of food and agriculture all year round! So I chose the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month to cook a pot of "Laba porridge" to pay homage to the gods, celebrate the harvest and wish a bigger harvest in the coming year. This formed the custom of eating Laba porridge on Laba Festival. In the process of the inheritance of Laba Festival, there is another legend that Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, ate porridge cooked by a shepherd girl with apple glutinous rice dumplings on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, and became a Buddha under a bodhi tree. People who believe in Buddhism in later generations will chant Buddhist scriptures and eat porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, thus adding religious color to Laba Festival. In any case, people eat Laba porridge to celebrate the harvest.
"Laba porridge" can really reflect the bumper harvest of agriculture, because it uses all kinds of rice (glutinous rice, yellow rice, white rice, sorghum rice, etc.), all kinds of beans (soybeans, beans, cowpeas, etc.), all kinds of dried fruits (jujube, chestnuts, almonds, peanuts, walnuts, longan meat, etc.) and tofu and meat. People in Guanzhong area and some nearby areas attach great importance to the "Laba Festival". However, there are different stresses between counties, townships and villages. Farmers in Fuping county like to make wine on this day, which is called "Lajiao"; The ancient custom of Chang 'an County is to pour cook the meat mi on flowers and trees on this day, which is called "never stopping"; In Ganxian and Liquan areas, it is important to send porridge to the elderly on Laba Festival, and the daughter's family should invite the new son-in-law to eat porridge; Fengxiang area is to use yellow rice and eight kinds of beans, plus oil and salt to make a Laba braised rice; In rural areas of Tongchuan area, the habit of shaving heads and cutting hair for young boys and girls is still circulating on this day. All these things have different tastes.
On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Chinese people have the custom of eating Laba porridge. It is said that Laba porridge came from India. Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, was originally the son of King Sudoku in the northern part of ancient India (present-day Nepal). He saw that all living beings were suffering from physical and mental illness, and he was dissatisfied with the theocratic rule of Brahmins at that time, giving up the throne and becoming a monk. After six years of asceticism, he became a Buddha under the bodhi tree on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. During these six years of asceticism, I only ate one hemp and one meter a day. Later generations did not forget his sufferings and ate porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month every year as a souvenir. "Laba" became the "Buddha's Inauguration Day".
"Laba" is a grand festival of Buddhism. Before liberation, Buddhist temples all over the country held Buddhist bathing meetings and chanted scriptures, and imitated the legend of a herdess offering chyle before Sakyamuni became a Taoist, and cooked porridge with fragrant valleys and fruits to offer to the Buddha, which was called "Laba porridge". Laba porridge was presented to disciples and good men and women, and it became a custom among the people in the future. It is said that in some monasteries, before the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, monks held alms bowls along the street and cooked the collected rice, chestnuts, dates, nuts and other materials into Laba porridge and distributed it to the poor. Legend has it that you can get the blessing of Buddha after eating it, so the poor call it "Buddha porridge" Lu You's poem in the Southern Song Dynasty said: "Today, Buddha porridge is more mutually beneficial, and it is opposite that Jiangcun saves new things." It is said that there is a "rice stack building" for storing leftovers in Tianning Temple, a famous temple in Hangzhou. Usually, monks in the temple dry the leftovers every day, accumulate a year's surplus food, and cook them into Laba porridge for believers on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. It is called "Fushou porridge" and "Fude porridge", which means that they can increase their happiness and longevity after eating them. It can be seen that monks at that time cherished the virtue of food.
Laba porridge was cooked with adzuki beans and glutinous rice in ancient times, and then the materials gradually increased. People in the Southern Song Dynasty carefully wrote "Old Wulin Stories" and said: "It is called Laba porridge to make porridge with walnuts, pine nuts, milk mushrooms, persimmon mushrooms and persimmon chestnuts." Up to now, people in the vast areas of Jiangnan, Northeast and Northwest China still have the custom of eating Laba porridge, which is rare in Guangdong. The materials used are different, and glutinous rice, red beans, dates, chestnuts, peanuts, ginkgo, lotus seeds and lilies are often used to cook sweet porridge. There are also longan, longan meat and candied fruit that are cooked. Eating a bowl of steaming Laba porridge in winter is delicious and nutritious, and it can really increase happiness and longevity. (China Spring Festival Network)
Laba porridge is a local food custom
On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Laba is the first festival before the Spring Festival. Since then, the "annual flavor" has become increasingly rich. The custom of eating Laba porridge has been in China for thousands of years, and it has a different origin.
According to legend, in the northern part of ancient India, that is, the southern part of Nepal today, there was a king of suddhodana, who had a son named Gautama Siddhartha. When he was young, he felt painful about all kinds of troubles of life, old age, illness and death, found that social life was futile, and was extremely dissatisfied with the theocracy of Brahmanism. So at the age of 29, he abandoned the luxurious life of the royal family and became a monk. According to history, this day is the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month in China. Because he is a Sakyamuni, Buddhists later addressed him as Sakyamuni, which means the Sage of Sakyamuni. After Buddhism was introduced into China, monasteries were built in various places, and the activity of cooking porridge to worship Buddha became popular, especially on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, when Sakyamuni was sacrificed to practice Buddhism, all monasteries held chanting, and imitated the legendary program of offering a kind of "chyle" before Buddhism became Buddhism, and cooked porridge to worship Buddha. This is the origin of Laba porridge.
In the Song Dynasty, Wu Zimu wrote the Dream of Liang Lu for six years: "On the eighth day, the temple was called 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 the Yuan Dynasty, wrote a story about a visit to Yan Dou: "On December 8th, Baiguan porridge was given, which was mixed with rice and fruit. Those who have more goods win, and this story follows the story of the Song Dynasty. " "Yongle Dadian" records that "it is the eighth day of the month, and the Zen family calls it the Laba Day, cooking bad porridge for the Buddha to eat." In the Qing Dynasty, in the third year of Yongzheng (A.D. 1725), Sejong changed the residence east of imperial academy in Beijing's Andingmen to the Lama Temple. On the eighth day of Laba, in the Wanfuge and other places in the palace, Laba porridge was cooked in a pot and monks were invited to chant Buddhist scriptures, and then the porridge was distributed to the palace ministers to taste and eat for the festival. "The Records of Shuntian Mansion in Guangxu" goes: "On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Yonghe officials cook porridge, customize it, send ministers to monitor it, and cover it for dinner." Laba porridge is also called "Qibao porridge" and "Wuwei porridge". The earliest Laba porridge was cooked by adzuki beans, and it was gradually enriched by evolution and local characteristics. Scholars in the Southern Song Dynasty carefully wrote "Old Wulin Stories", saying: "It is called Laba porridge to make porridge with walnuts, pine nuts, milk, persimmons and chestnuts." Fucha Dunchong, a Qing dynasty man, said in "A Chronicle of Yanjing's Age" that "Laba porridge is cooked with yellow rice, white rice, glutinous rice, millet, water chestnut, peeled jujube paste, etc., and dyed with red peach kernels, almonds, melon seeds, peanuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts, white sugar, brown sugar and miscellaneous grapes for topical use".
People in Tianjin cook Laba porridge, which is similar to that in Beijing, with lotus seeds, lilies, pearl rice, Yirenmi, barley kernels, sticky glutinous rice, sticky yellow rice, beans, mung beans, longan pulp, longan pulp, ginkgo, red dates and sweet-scented osmanthus in syrup, etc., which are all good in color, fragrance 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 the nerves, clearing away heart fire and nourishing blood.
Laba porridge in Shanxi, also known as Babao porridge, is mainly made of millet, with cowpea, adzuki bean, mung bean and jujube as well as sticky yellow rice, rice and glutinous rice. In southeastern Shanxi, it is also one of the food customs to cook porridge with water, which is called sweet rice, that is, adzuki beans, red beans, cowpeas, sweet potatoes, peanuts, glutinous rice and persimmon on the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month.
On the day of Laba in the northern Shaanxi Plateau, porridge is cooked with a variety of dried fruits, tofu and meat in addition to rice and beans. Usually cooked in the morning, sweet or salty, depending on people's taste. If it's lunch, we should cook some noodles in the porridge and have a family reunion dinner. 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. According to folk legend, Laba is forbidden to eat vegetables on this day, saying that there are many weeds in the field after eating Lai crops. Laba people in southern Shaanxi want to eat mixed 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 increase diced meat, tofu and radish, and also adds seasonings. On Laba Day, people not only eat Laba porridge, but also worship ancestors and granaries with porridge.
Gansu people traditionally cook Laba porridge with grains and vegetables, which are not only eaten by family members, but also distributed to neighbors and fed to livestock. In the urban areas of Lanzhou and Baiyin, Laba porridge is cooked 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 god, kitchen god, earth god and god of wealth, and pray for good weather and good harvests in the coming year; Then give it to the neighbors and enjoy it for the last family. 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".
People in Ningxia usually cook porridge with lentils, soybeans, red beans, broad beans, black beans, rice and potatoes, and add "wheat ears" cut into rhombic willow leaves with wheat flour or buckwheat flour, or "sparrow heads" made into small round eggs, and then add chopped green onion oil before cooking. On this day, the whole family only ate laba rice, not vegetables.
Although most Xining people in Qinghai are Han people, Laba does not eat porridge, but eats wheat kernel rice. Boil the freshly ground wheat kernels 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 blend into a milky shape. When the pot is uncovered in the morning, it smells delicious.
In the "Confucius Food System" in Shandong Province, it is stipulated that there are two kinds of "Laba porridge". One kind is cooked with rice kernels, longan, lotus seeds, lilies, chestnuts, red dates and japonica rice, and some "porridge fruits" are added to the bowl, mainly carved into fruits of various shapes for ornament. This kind of porridge is specially for the master of Confucius and the master of the Twelve Houses. The other is cooked with rice, sliced meat, cabbage, tofu, etc., which is for the servants in Confucius' house to drink.
People in Henan eat laba rice, which is cooked with eight kinds of raw materials, such as millet, mung bean, cowpea, wheat kernel, peanut, red date and corn. When cooked, add some brown sugar and walnut kernel to make the porridge thick and fragrant, which means a bumper harvest in the coming year.
there are two kinds of laba porridge in Jiangsu, 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 was spread from the kingdom of Brahma, and the seven treasures were beautifully blended and the five flavors were mixed."
Zhejiang people usually cook Laba porridge with walnut kernel, pine nuts, Gordon Euryale seeds, lotus seeds, red dates, longan meat, lychee meat, etc., which is sweet and delicious, and they pray for a long life. It is said that this porridge cooking method was spread from Nanjing, which contains some legends.
There are many people in Sichuan. Laba porridge is made in a variety of ways, sweet, salty and spicy, while rural people eat more 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. Nowadays, there are many people in cities who eat sweet porridge, which can be called different flavors. Laba is closely related to porridge, and porridge is drunk in Laba, which can be regarded as a fancy and a level.
Chinese people love Laba porridge so much, and there are some scientific reasons besides eating customs. "Porridge Spectrum" written by Cao Yanshan, a nutritionist in the Qing Dynasty, gives a detailed and clear account of the fitness and nutritional functions of Laba porridge, which is a good food therapy with the functions of regulating stomach, invigorating spleen, nourishing heart, clearing away lung heat, benefiting kidney, benefiting liver, quenching thirst, improving eyesight, relaxing bowels and calming the nerves. These have been confirmed by modern medicine. For the elderly, Laba porridge is also a good food, but we should also pay attention to not drinking too much. In fact, it is not only Laba, but also porridge for the elderly. There are quite a few varieties of porridge, which can vary from person to person, so you can choose according to your needs and eat as appropriate. (Fujian Hotline)
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.
Emerald Jasper Laba Garlic
Pickling Laba Garlic is a custom in North China, especially in North China. As the name implies, garlic is brewed on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. In fact, the materials are very simple, namely vinegar and garlic cloves. The method is also extremely simple. Put the peeled garlic cloves in a sealable container.