What is the origin of Laba porridge
4hw.com.cn: our traditional festival Laba Festival is coming. Many friends know that Laba porridge is to be drunk on this day. Do you know how Laba porridge comes from? There are many origins of Laba porridge. Let's have a look.
1. From sacrifice.
In ancient China, the emperor of the son of heaven used dry things for wax sacrifice in December of the lunar calendar to honor the gods. Wax sacrifice includes two aspects: one is sacrifice; Second, prayer. Sacrifice is to worship the eight Valley Star Gods and offer them with dry things to celebrate the harvest. Dry matter is called Laba, which is the star God of Bagu, so it is called Laba. In terms of time, the wax Festival is held on the eighth day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar every year. The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is also called Laba. Prayer is an important aspect of wax sacrifice. Its content is to pray for good weather in the coming year and ensure a bumper agricultural harvest. On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month every year, dry things are sacrificed to Bagu star God for prayer, which is called Laba wish or Laba wish. The wish is the same as porridge. Therefore, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month every year, dry fruits and vegetables are mixed together, cooked into porridge, and presented to the God of agriculture to celebrate the harvest. Laba porridge is homonymous with Laba Zhu, which is the origin of Laba porridge. The meaning is to cook porridge with dry things, worship the God of agriculture, pray and bless, so as to celebrate the harvest.
2. From Buddhist legends.
It is said that Sakyamuni Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, visited famous rivers and mountains in India before becoming a Buddha. In order to explore the truth of life, he sought strange people, visited the elderly and practiced hard. One day he came to the kingdom of Magadha and fainted to the ground because he was hungry and thirsty. Then a kind shepherdess saved him with her lunch. This lunch is a mixture of sticky rice and glutinous rice porridge with some wild fruits. Shiying Muni felt incomparably sweet to eat. That is, on this day, Shiying Muni became a Buddha. This day is the eighth day of December. December is the twelfth month. The eighth day of December is commonly known as Laba. Later, on this day, monks chanted sutras and performed Dharma, took fragrant Valley and fruit and cooked porridge for Buddha, which was used to commemorate Sakyamuni's becoming Buddha Day. Therefore, this porridge for Buddha, called Laba porridge, became popular over time and gradually became popular among the people. In fact, this statement is quite believable, because there are many records about Laba porridge in the past dynasties: Meng Yuanlao: "Tokyo dream records" records: 'it's the day & lsquo; The great temples held bathing Buddha meetings and sent seven treasures and five flavors porridge to the disciples, which is called Laba porridge. " Wu Zimu's dream of Liang Lu Volume VI 'December': 'on the 8th of this month, the temple is called Laba. Five flavor porridge, named & lsquo; Laba porridge & rsquo Volume 3 of Zhou Mi's old stories of Wulin: "on the eighth day, the temple and others made porridge with walnuts, pine nuts, milk mushrooms, plum and chestnut, which is called & lsquo; Laba porridge & rsquo It is more detailed in Fu chadunchong's record of the age of Yanjing. Laba porridge: "Laba porridge is cooked with yellow rice, white rice, red rice, millet, water chestnut rice, chestnuts, red beans, peeled jujube mud, etc. in water, and dyed with red peach kernels, almonds, melon seeds, peanuts, pine nuts, white sugar, red sugar and grapes."
3. It comes from Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty.
It is said that Zhu Yuanzhang's family was very poor when he was young. His parents sent him to a rich man's house to herd cattle. The rich man was very cruel to him. He was often beaten and didn't have enough to eat. One day, when he came back from herding cattle, he passed a single wooden bridge. Unexpectedly, the old cow slipped and fell off the bridge and broke his leg. The rich man was so angry that he shut Zhu Yuanzhang into a room and didn't give him food. He was so hungry that he turned around in the room and wanted to find something to eat. Suddenly, he found a rat hole in the house and pulled it off. Unexpectedly, it was a granary for rats, with rice, beans, taros There were also red dates, but they were all so little. He combined these things and cooked a pot of porridge. Because he was very hungry, he felt very sweet and delicious. Later, when Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, he was tired of eating delicacies. One day, he suddenly remembered that he ate porridge made of grains and beans dug out of the mouse hole when he was a child, so he asked the imperial chef to make him a bowl of sweet porridge made of all kinds of grains and beans. This day is the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, so it is called Laba porridge. When the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty heard that the emperor ate Laba porridge, they followed suit and gradually spread to the people, which became a custom.