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The Lunar New Year Festival is held on the eighth day of the month of Lunar New Year every year, and it is called the "Lunar New Year". La" means "waxing moon", why is the twelfth month of the lunar calendar known as the "waxing moon"? Historical researchers pointed out that in ancient China, "La" is a ritual, called "big La". In the Shang Dynasty, people used to hunt birds and animals every year to hold spring, summer, autumn and winter four times a big sacrifice, sacrificing ancestors and the gods of heaven and earth. Among them, the winter festival was the largest and the most solemn. Later, the winter festival was called "La Sacrifice". Therefore, people called December "Lunar Month" and the day of the winter festival "Lunar Day". At that time, there was no fixed date for the Lunar New Year's Day. To the Han Dynasty, only clear from the winter solstice after the third garrison for the "waxing day", and do not eat Lapa congee, but only the day of sacrifice to the gods. Until the North and South Dynasties, only the eighth day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar is fixed as "Lapa Festival". People use this festival to worship their ancestors and the gods of heaven and earth, and to pray for a good harvest and good fortune.

As we all know, the most common custom of Laha Festival is to drink Laha congee. The history of Laha congee is full of different stories, there are several legends:

1 "Buddha practice" said:

It is said that Laha congee from India. The founder of Buddhism, Siddhartha Gautama, was the son of King Jinyi of Gavilavi country in the north of ancient India (now in Nepal), who saw all beings suffering from birth, old age, sickness and death and other pain and suffering, but also dissatisfied with the theocratic rule of the Brahmins at that time, gave up his throne, and went out to cultivate his own home. After six years of asceticism, he attained enlightenment and became a Buddha under the Bodhi tree on the eighth day of the waxing moon. During these six years of asceticism, he ate only one flax and one rice a day. The descendants did not forget his suffering and ate porridge on the eighth day of the Lunar New Year every year to commemorate him. "The eighth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar has become the "anniversary of the Buddha's enlightenment".

2 "shepherdess milk rice to save Buddha" said:

This is the most widely circulated, but also the most recognized one. Legend has it that Buddha Siddhartha Gautama left his palace to practice, but after years of practicing hard for nothing, he wanted to take a bath in the river to clear his head, and after the bath he was too weak to climb back to the shore. The shepherdess Suyeda (meaning good life) pulled him to the shore and gave him a bowl of porridge made of rice, chestnuts, etc. The Buddha ate it and was energized. The Buddha ate it and was so energized that he came to enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. This day happens to be the eighth day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar. Buddhist disciples regarded the porridge as a good medicine, and temples offered porridge to Buddha on the eighth day of the 12th lunar month every year, and gave alms to the world. Influenced by this, China's folk gradually formed the custom of eating porridge on the eighth day of the month.

3 "Qin Great Wall construction" said:

Legend has it that when the Qin Great Wall repair, the civilian workers live and eat at the site all year round, but the food has to rely on family members to send. Some people because of the home is far away or poverty, food can not be delivered in time, one year the day of the Lahai, miners broke the food, we searched the grain bag, the collection of beans, rice and other kinds of food will be gathered together, boiled a pot of porridge to eat, but ultimately starved to death. In order to mourn these miners, people every year to Laha to eat Laha porridge.

4 "Bao Wa repentance" said:

Legend has it that there is a person called Bao Wa lazy and playful, but also live a luxurious life, and soon the parents left the family property spoiled. This year, the eighth day of the month, others are beginning to prepare for the New Year's Eve, while his family is the bottom of the granary. Looked at the daughter-in-law Lahua full of tears, Bao Wa shame. Neighbors heard of a bowl of rice from the east, a bowl of beans from the west, sent a variety of food, vegetables. Lahua combined the grain and vegetables sent by the townspeople and made a pot of porridge, which solved the temporary difficulties. From then on, Bao Wa not only worked hard, but also lived frugally, and soon became rich. In order to let Bao Wa always remember this lesson, Lahua boiled Lahua porridge every year on the 8th day of the 12th lunar month. People in order to use the story of Bao Wa to educate their children, but also on this day to eat Lahua congee, gradually become a custom.

5 "Zhang family loser" said

There is a folktale that a rich old man surnamed son, to which a lot of love, the old couple just passed away, the boy will spend a lot of money to lose money, and soon became a pauper a. The day of Lahua, the north wind was blowing, the wind was blowing. On the day of the eighth, the north wind whistling, small Zhang hunger and cold, the bottom of the hoard of grain hoards in various places of the family swept once, will sweep out of the various colors of grain and beans cooked a pot of porridge, but the porridge is not boiled, people have frozen and starved to death. Later, people will get some mixed grain and beans in the Lahai porridge to eat, as a warning to future generations, everything can not be extravagant, or even the porridge can not drink on.

Don't underestimate the Lahai Festival, this festival has a role to play, its arrival, marking the Chinese traditional Spring Festival prelude to the official opening. The folk song says: "Lapa, Lapa, children want guns, girls want flowers." From this day onwards, people start to buy new year's goods to welcome the annual Chinese New Year festival. There is also a folk song that says, "Old lady, don't be upset, after Laha is the year. Laha congee, drink for a few days, li li la la twenty-three 。。。。。。" Laha is already here, can the Spring Festival be far away? In other words, with the winter festival as a prelude and Laha as a symbol, the Chinese people who have worked hard all year are starting to enter the most comfortable and cozy time of the year, and the carnival month of the Han people is about to begin.

The main folklore of the traditional Lahai Festival

①Drinking Lahai congee

When it comes to the Lahai Festival, it is impossible not to talk about the most common and important custom of the festival, drinking Lahai congee. Lapa congee, also known as seven treasures and five flavors of porridge, in ancient times was cooked with red small beans, glutinous rice, and then gradually increased the number of materials. The Southern Song Dynasty people Zhou Mi wrote "Old Story of Wulin", said: "with walnuts, pine nuts, milk mushrooms, persimmon mushrooms, persimmon and chestnut and so on to do the porridge, called 'Lahai congee'". So far, people in many parts of our country still retain the custom of eating congee on the eighth day of the month. The materials used vary, mostly with glutinous rice, red beans, dates, chestnuts, peanuts, white fruit, lotus seeds, lilies and other sweet porridge. There are also added cinnamon, longan meat, candied fruit and other cooking, other various ingredients can be described as all kinds of, varying.

According to ancient custom, people from the seventh night of the first day of the month of Lunar New Year began to pan the rice, washing materials, and then down to the pot with a large fire boil, and then slow simmering with a small fire, until the next morning. After the congee is boiled, first to honor the gods and ancestors, and then distributed to relatives and friends, and finally the family to eat congee together.

An article describes the process of making Laha congee and the scene on Laha Day: "Laha congee patterns all over China, competing with each other, there are many varieties. Among them to Beijing's most elaborate, mixed in the white rice in more items, such as dates, lotus seeds, walnuts, chestnuts, almonds, pine nuts, cinnamon, hazelnuts, grapes, white fruits, horn, green silk, roses, red beans, peanuts ...... no less than a total of twenty kinds. People in the evening of the seventh day of the first month of the lunar calendar, began to get busy, washing rice, soaking fruit, plucking the skin, remove the nucleus, fine picking and then in the middle of the night to start cooking, and then stewed over a slight fire, has been stewed until the next morning, Laha congee is considered to be simmering well. More sophisticated people, but also the first fruit carved into human figures, animals, patterns, and then placed in the pot to cook. A special feature is to put a fruit lion in the congee. Fruit lion is made of several kinds of fruit lion-shaped objects, with picking out the pits of jujube roasted dry crisp jujube as the lion body, half of the walnut kernel as the lion's head, peach kernel as the lion's feet, sweet almonds are used for the lion's tail. The sweet almonds are used as the lion's tail. Then they are stuck together with sugar and placed in a bowl of congee, resembling a small lion. If the bowl is bigger, you can put double lions or four small lions. The more elaborate ones are made of date paste, bean paste, yam, hawthorn cake, and other foods with various colors, and are pinched into the figures of the Eight Immortals, the Longevity Star, and the Lohan. This kind of decorated Laha congee can only be seen on the offering table of big temples in the past. After the congee has been boiled, it should first be offered to the gods and ancestors. After that, it is to be presented to friends and relatives and must be sent out before noon. Finally it is eaten by the whole family. The leftover Laha congee, which is kept for a few days and still has leftovers, is a good omen, taking its meaning of having more than enough for each year. If the porridge is given to the poor to eat, it is even more virtuous for oneself."

②Other food customs

Tofu: Anhui Qianxian folk flavor specialties, in the Spring Festival on the eve of the Lunar New Year before and after the Lunar New Year, Qianxian families to sunshine tofu, the folk will be this natural sunshine tofu called "Lunar New Year tofu".

Jade Jasper Lahai garlic: bubble Lahai garlic is a custom in the north, especially in northern China. As the name suggests, it is on the eighth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar to soak garlic. In fact, the material is very simple, is vinegar and garlic cloves. The practice is also extremely simple, the peeled garlic cloves into a can, bottle or other container can be sealed inside, and then poured into the vinegar, seal the mouth to a cold place. Slowly, soaked in vinegar in the garlic will turn green, and finally will become a body turquoise, as jade jasper.

LaBaNian: some of the northern part of our country does not produce or less production of rice places, people do not eat LaBa congee, but eat LaBaNian. Every other day with a variety of fruits and vegetables into a bashful, the noodles rolled out, to the morning of the eighth of Lunar New Year the whole family to eat Lunar New Year's noodles.

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, and some on the fifth day of the first month of Lahai on the cooking, but also pinch some noodles to make a good meal. Some people cook it on the day of Laba, and some cook it on the fifth day of the first month of Laba, and also pinch some "bird's head" with noodles, and cook it with rice and beans (five kinds of beans). It is said that people ate "bird head" on the eighth day of the month, sparrow headache, the next year does not jeopardize the crops. The "five beans" were cooked, and in addition to self-consumption, they were also given to relatives and neighbors. Every day at dinner to get hot with food, eat until the twenty-third of Lunar New Year, symbolizing a year of surplus.

There is also a folk legend about the cooking of "five beans". Legend has it that when Ouyang Xiu of the Song Dynasty was not in a position of power, he sold literature to make a living. He met a woman of the family name of Li, who chose his son-in-law by lottery. After Ouyang Xiu won the lottery, Ms. Li was too poor to love the rich and drove her daughter out of the house. Miss Li is a righteous woman, vowed to Ouyang Xiu lifelong companion, lovers eventually. From then on, Ouyang Xiu put his wife in charge of the money he got from selling literature. His wife scrimped and saved, and was thrifty and hardworking. Every morning only eat beans and rice, the hard life to the opening of the subject, his wife took out the silver saved up for Ouyang Xiu as coils. Ouyang Xiu asked where the silver came from, his wife said it was to eat beans and rice to save. Later, Ouyang Xiu gold list, a step body honor, do a big official, with his wife to go to office. His wife was afraid that he was sitting in a high official position, forget the fundamental, in the first five days of the lunar month to cook him a meal of five kinds of beans. Ouyang Xiu a taste, even said: "difficult to eat! Difficult to eat!" His wife then told him about the hardships he had experienced in the past. Ouyang Xiu y wife virtuous, he set a rule for the family, every year on the fifth day of the lunar month to eat beans and rice. Passed down to the people, the formation of the custom of cooking "five beans".

The ballad: green beans green, do not forget the bitter first; yellow beans yellow, do not forget to do the article; cowpeas cowpeas, do not forget the vegetable soup soup; silkworms silkworms, do not forget the three cold; peas peas, do the official and do not covet.

Since the fifth day of the first month of Lunar New Year is very close to the eighth day of the first month, the local people will cook "five beans" and "Laha congee" mixed together, the "five beans" is also called "Laha congee". "Lapa congee", in fact, "five beans" and "Lapa congee" are two different concepts.

3 Other customs

The Central Plains have the custom of feeding jujube congee. With a knife, axe cut through the skin of jujube tree, will Laha congee paste into the axe marks called feed jujube tree. So that the next year the jujube tree can be more results. Folk proverb says: "cut an axe, knot stone five, cut a knife, knot ten slightly." See people look forward to a good harvest wish.

There are places where the seventh night of the first day of the month of wax, families have to "freeze ice ice" for the children. In a bowl of water, adults with carrots, carrots carved into a variety of flowers, with coriander as green leaves, placed on the outdoor windowsill. Early the next morning, if the ice in the bowl freezes up, it is an omen of a good wheat harvest in the coming year. Then pour the ice out of the bowl, colorful, crystal clear, very beautiful. The children hand a piece, while playing and sucking. It is said that early in the morning, some farmers get up, they go to the river ditch, scribbling pool to play ice, will play back the ice poured on their own land or dung heap, praying for the next year, the wind and rain, crops, expressing the good wishes of the working people look forward to a good harvest.