Lapa Festival is one of the most important festivals of Lunar New Year in China, it is the eighth day of the twelfth month of the 12th lunar month, which is known as "Lunar New Year's Day" in ancient times, and commonly known as "Lapa Festival". Lunar New Year is the end of the year, ancient farming people have nothing to do, they go out hunting. One is to get more food to make up for the lack of food, and the second is to use the beasts to hit the ancestors to honor the gods, pray for blessings and seek life, to avoid disasters and welcome the good luck.
The day of Lapa has the custom of eating Lapa congee. China's history of drinking Lapa congee, has been more than a thousand years. The earliest began in the Song Dynasty. Every Lahai day, whether it is the court, the government, the temple or the people's home to do Lahai congee. In the Qing Dynasty, the custom of drinking Laha congee was even more prevalent. In the court, the emperor, the empress, the emperor's son, etc. to the civil and military ministers, attendants courtesans to give Laha congee, and to the various monasteries issued rice, fruit, etc. for the monks to eat.
Customs of Lapa
There is an ancient proverb: "After Lapa is the year", so Lapa is regarded as the beginning of the Chinese New Year customs, and there are many customs about Lapa in the vast Chinese land.
Customs one, Lahai congee. Laha congee has many ingredients, in addition to white rice, people will be red dates, lotus seeds, walnuts, chestnuts, cinnamon, grapes, red beans, peanuts and other no less than 20 in the raw materials soaked in advance, in the second slowly boiled into a sweet and savory Laha congee. Ancient people due to living conditions, food is more scarce, can drink Laha congee, at that time is a very happy and look forward to things.
Customs two, Lahai garlic. Bubble Lahai garlic is a custom in the north, especially in northern China, everyone in the first eight days of Lunar New Year to soak garlic, and Lahai garlic practice is simple, the peeled garlic cloves into a sealed jar, soaked in vinegar can be. At the same time, Lahai garlic "garlic" word and "count" word homophonic, the ancient families of merchants to close the account on this day, the year's income and expenditure calculated out, you can see the profit and loss, including foreign debt and foreign debt, are to be counted clearly on this day, "Lahai The "Lahachi" is such a thing.
Customs three, Laha noodles. Shaanxi Guanzhong region is popular to eat Laha noodles, Laha noodles to noodles and a variety of beans as raw materials, noodles need to be made into leek leaf noodles standby, beans soak a night in advance, Laha this day used to simmer soup. At the same time, the cooked oil will be fragrant shallots, after the noodles are cooked, the shallots will be splashed into the pot of oil, that is, to complete the production of Laha noodles.
Custom four, Lahai tofu. "Lahai tofu" is Anhui Qianxian folk flavor specialties, before and after Lahai, Qianxian households to sunshine tofu, folk will be this natural sunshine tofu called "Lahai tofu".
Custom five, cooking "five beans". Some places over the Lahai porridge, not called "Lahai porridge", but called cooking "five beans", some cooked on the day of Lahai, some in the first five months of Lahai on the cooking, but also with the surface pinch some "birds head", and rice, beans (beans). and rice, beans (five kinds of beans) with cooking. It is said that people ate on the eighth day of the month, the next year does not jeopardize the crops. Cooked this "five beans", in addition to their own food, but also to neighbors. Every day at dinner to get hot with food, eat until the twenty-third of Lunar New Year, to symbolize the surplus for years to come.
As a traditional festival in China, Lahai Festival should be remembered, people should also actively participate in Lahai Festival activities. As Chinese people, especially the younger generation of Chinese people, they should remember the Lapa Festival, the tradition and wisdom left by their ancestors, and protect this traditional symbol of Chinese culture.
Legendary Stories of Lapa Porridge
Allusion 1
It is said that Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of Ming Dynasty, was poor when he was a child, so he herded cows for a rich man. One day when he was crossing a wooden bridge, the ox slipped and fell off the bridge, breaking his leg. The rich old man was furious and put him in a house without food. Zhu Yuanzhang hungry enough, suddenly found a rat hole in the house, peeled open a look, the original is a mouse granary, which has rice, beans, and red dates. He combined these things together and cooked a pot of porridge, which tasted very sweet and delicious. Later Zhu Yuanzhang when the emperor, and remembered this matter, then asked the Imperial Kitchen boiled a pot of various grains and beans mixed together in the porridge. The day of eating is the eighth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, so it is called Laha congee.
Allusion two
According to legend, the congee came from India, and its popularity thanks to Buddhism. As we all know, the eighth day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar is also the day when the Buddha attained enlightenment and became a Buddha. According to folklore, before he became a Buddhist, Siddhartha Gautama traveled around many places in India. One day, he was so tired and hungry that he fainted by the side of the road. A shepherd girl found him and gave him food, and Siddhartha quickly regained his strength. Then he took a bath in a nearby river and sat alone under a Bodhi tree, meditating and thinking. After six years of asceticism, he finally attained enlightenment and became a Buddha by catching a glimpse of a star on the night of the eighth day of the Lunar New Year. The shepherd girl's meal was made of rice and glutinous rice with some fresh wild fruits picked in the mountains. Since then, followers of Sakyamuni have been making porridge with new grain rice and fresh fruits. The congee is cooked from the seventh day of the Lunar New Year until dawn the next day. This porridge was symbolically used to offer sacrifices to the Buddha. The eighth day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar became the "Anniversary of the Enlightenment of the Buddha".
Allusion three
Legend has it that a long, long time ago, there was an old couple who worked hard all their lives and lived a good life, but they had no children. The old man was fifty years old, the first eight days of the waxing moon this day gave birth to a fat son, the old couple to the son named Lapa. The old couple on the son from childhood pampered, what to give what, say what to do what to do, he said to sprinkle urine in the pot, his father said: Sprinkle it, sprinkle less. He used the method of recording the number of paddles, his mother was afraid that he was tired, so he gave him a broom, one can scratch a lot of roads. In this way, Lapa grew up to be capricious, lazy, and used to be able to feed and clothe himself. After Lapa became an adult, his parents gave him a daughter-in-law, full of thought that the daughter-in-law will persuade him to change his bad habits, but who knows that the daughter-in-law and he is the same, is also lazy. The old couple had no choice but to let the two of them to set up their own pots and pans to live, wanting them to know something hard-won, did not expect after a year, they can not even uncover the pots and pans. To the eighth day of the first month of the Lunar New Year's Eve, people are buying new year's miles, but the two of them want to rice, no rice, no noodle, sweep the bottom of the tile jar, dusting cans, and put together a few sorts of miscellaneous cereals simmered a bit of porridge and drank it to sleep, but still feel the cold and hungry, the next day, people just found them two frozen to death. Since then, "Laha, Laha, freezing to death of a family" ballad has spread. Every time the day of Lapa, every family boiled Lapa congee, so that the whole family to learn from the Lapa family's lessons, thrift, labor and wealth.