The twelfth lunar month is another name for the end of December. As far as "La" is concerned, there are records of "Roufu" and "La Wei" as early as Zhouyi and Zhouli. The original meaning of "wax" is "dry meat".
At the end of the year, December is a month of more sacrifices because it is in the transition period between the old and the new. As early as the pre-Qin period, it was convenient for some places in China to hold a "year-end sacrifice" in this month of the transition of the old and the new. Because there are nicknames such as "twelfth month" and "winter" in December, the sacrifices held this month are called "La Worship".
Inheritance and development:
The twelfth lunar month "cold winter month" describes the December of the lunar calendar, that is, the dead of winter when the vegetation withers and the ice peaks are covered with snow. The word "twelfth month" has a long history. In ancient times, people called the memorial ceremony of offering sacrifices to ancestors and gods at the end of the year to pray for longevity and avoid disasters and welcome auspicious days "La". Because "La Worship" always takes wild animals as offerings, "La Worship" is also called "hunting sacrifice".
In the old classics, the word "la" and "hunting" have the same meaning. "Custom Pass" records: "The wax hunter also hunts for animal sacrifices to his ancestors, or wax picks up, and the new ones alternate, so he hunts for big sacrifices to repay his merits." It also says: "The twelfth month of the lunar calendar is also the month of La Worship, so it is called the twelfth month." By 22 1 year BC, Qin Shihuang unified the whole country and ordered the establishment of a calendar, calling December, when the old and the new alternate in late winter and early spring, the twelfth month.