What is Laba Festival?
Laba Festival, commonly known as Laba, refers to the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. Laba Festival is a festival to worship ancestors and gods and pray for good harvest and good luck. According to legend, this day is the day when Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, became a monk and founded Buddhism under the bodhi of Buddha, that is, the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, so it is also called "Buddhist and Taoist Festival".
In China, Laba Festival has the traditional custom of drinking Laba porridge and soaking Laba garlic. In Henan and other places, Laba porridge is also called "everyone's meal". It is a holiday food custom to commemorate the national hero Yue Fei.
How did Laba Festival come about?
Laba Festival is a traditional religious and agricultural festival of Han nationality in China. On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, this day is called "the twelfth lunar month". After Buddhism was introduced into China in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it coincided with a Buddhist festival, also known as "Buddhist Festival". As for the origin of La Ri, it originated from a winter festival of ancient Han ancestors. Due to the cold weather in winter and slack farming, people go hunting in the mountains in preparation for the end of the year when the old and the new turn, using prey as a "sacrifice" to worship ancestors and the gods of heaven and earth and pray for disaster relief. In ancient Chinese, hunting and wax are the same word. Therefore, this festival is called "La Worship", and the December of the lunar calendar is also called "twelfth month".
Historically, every year in the twelfth lunar month, emperors prayed to heaven, slaughtered a large number of animals and steamed wine, and held a "wax" festival to bless the gods and ancestors and reap a bumper harvest in the coming year. "La Gu Ming, spring grass grows" is a folk proverb circulating in the Han Dynasty, which reflects the grand ceremony and scene of people beating gongs and drums to drive away the epidemic and welcome the New Year in the twelfth lunar month.
On the eighth day of December, it was called "La Ri" in ancient times. Since the pre-Qin period, "La Ri" has been regarded as a festival, but it was not fixed on the eighth day of December. It was not until the Southern and Northern Dynasties that the twelfth lunar month was set on the eighth day of December. Since then, people have sacrificed to the gods and ancestors of heaven and earth on this day to pray for good harvest and good luck.
What does Laba mean?
Laba is an ancient ritual to celebrate the harvest and thank ancestors and gods (including door gods, household gods, house gods, kitchen gods and well gods). Laba in Xia Dynasty was called Jiaping, Qing Sacrifice in Shang Dynasty and Da Wax in Zhou Dynasty. Because it is held in December, it is called the twelfth lunar month, and La Worship is called the twelfth lunar month. The twelfth lunar month in the pre-Qin period is the third day to the day after beginning of winter. Laba Festival is a festival to worship ancestors and gods and pray for good harvest and good luck. Later, Buddhism was introduced into the Eastern Han Dynasty. In order to expand its local influence, traditional culture attached to Laba Festival as the Buddha's enlightenment day. The formation of "Laba Festival" is the product of two aspects: one is the ancient "La Worship"; The second is the influence of Buddhist culture. This festival is the product of the fusion of China's ancient traditional culture and foreign Buddhist culture.
Laba porridge in the morning or at night: Laba porridge in the morning.
The habit of eating Laba porridge is also taboo in some places, that is, eating Laba porridge at noon is not enough. There is a saying that "eat porridge early and harvest food early next year". So there is a tradition of not eating Laba porridge after noon.
After laba porridge is cooked, you should sacrifice to God and ancestors first. After that, it will be given to relatives and friends, and it must be sent out before noon, and finally the whole family will eat it together. It is a good sign that the leftover Laba porridge has been preserved for a few days. If you give porridge to the poor, it will be better for you.
Why does Laba soak garlic?
On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, laba garlic will be soaked. Otherwise, it can't be called Laba garlic. During the New Year in China, people generally pay more attention to the consumption of meat food. In addition, there are few vegetables in winter. Eating a little garlic properly has obvious effects on blood circulation, improving gastrointestinal absorption, eliminating physical fatigue, strengthening physique and preventing colorectal cancer. White garlic is spicy, so most people don't eat it directly, while pickled Laba garlic is not so spicy. With the vinegar taste, people will like to eat it.
On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month
Son, son, don't be greedy. It was a year after Laba.
Ber Ber la la twenty-three, twenty-three cantaloupes are sticky,
24 days to clean the house, 25 times to buy tofu,
Twenty-six buys a catty of meat, twenty-seven kills a chicken,
Twenty-eight handfuls of flour and twenty-nine steamed buns,
Stay up all night for 30 nights, and it is held in Jiaozi on New Year's Eve every year.