La Ba Festival is the eighth day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar every year, symbolizing the change of the old and the new, praying for blessings, praying for a good harvest, etc..

LaBa is an ancient ritual to celebrate the harvest, thank ancestors and gods (including the gods of the door, the gods of the house, the gods of the house, the gods of the stove, the gods of the well), the Xia Dynasty called LaDi for "Jia Ping", the Shang Dynasty for "Ching Sai", the Zhou Dynasty for the "Great Wax". "big wax", because held in December, it is called the month for the wax month, called the day of the wax festival for the wax day.

The pre-Qin waxing day in the winter solstice after the third eleventh day. It was a festival used to worship ancestors and gods and pray for a good harvest and good luck. Later, Buddhism was introduced in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and in order to expand its `influence' in the local area by attaching the traditional culture to make the Lapa Festival as the day of Buddha's attainment of Taoism.

Why the end of the month called "La" has three meanings: First, "La, take also", implying the meaning of the old and the new (the "Sui book - rituals," recorded). Second, "wax with hunting", refers to the hunting to get animals and birds good ancestor sacrifices to the gods, "wax" from the "meat" next to the meat is "winter sacrifices The third is "the waxer", which refers to the hunting of animals in the field for sacrifices to ancestors and gods. The third said that "the wax, by the epidemic to welcome the spring", Lahai Festival is also known as the "Buddha into a festival", also known as the "into a festival", in fact, can be said to be the first eight days of December for the origins of the wax day.

La Bao customs taboos

1, La Bao Festival does not go back to her mother's home

According to the old saying in the past, there are always a few days in the year, married daughters can not go back to her mother's home, said the taboo, is to speak. Into the waxing moon, the first taboo day is Lahai. Laha this day to return to her mother's home will be unlucky for her mother-in-law, her mother-in-law will die on her back a hundred years later.

Another saying: "Laha do not eat the rice of the mother's family, grandparents can not afford", meaning that will be poor their own home. Some sayings even believe that in the month of Lunar New Year, the first eight, eighteen, twenty-eight are not allowed to spend in the mother's home.

2, Lapa congee is not lunch

In China, Lapa Festival to eat Lapa congee custom has been passed down for thousands of years, but for eating Lapa congee this habit, in some places there are taboos, that is, to eat Lapa congee is not lunch.

Every year, the night before the Lahai Festival people began to simmer Lahai congee, wait until the next morning to eat, if you can't eat it all, you can share it with friends and family, but not at noon, there is a saying called "early food congee, the next year, early harvest of food".