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Who invented Laba Festival? Have you heard of the magical legend of Laba Festival?

The magical legend of Laba Festival there is also the last festival at the end of 2018 in the lunar calendar, that is, Laba Festival. Although Laba Festival is not a big festival at present, it is also a festival highly valued by everyone in ancient China. Laba porridge is handed down from ancient times. So who invented Laba porridge? What are the legends of Laba Festival? This article will share with you the magical legend of Laba Festival.

The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is the traditional Laba Festival of the Han nationality in China. On this day, most parts of China have the custom of eating Laba porridge. Laba porridge is cooked with eight kinds of fresh food and melons and fruits harvested that year. It is generally sweet porridge. Many farmers in the central plains like Laba salty porridge. In addition to rice, millet, mung beans, cowpeas, peanuts, jujubes and other raw materials, the porridge also includes radish, cabbage, vermicelli, kelp, tofu and so on.

The Laba Festival is also called the Laba Festival, the Laba Festival, the king's wax or the day of Buddha becoming a Taoist priest. The original ancient sacrificial ceremony of celebrating the harvest and thanking the ancestors and gods (including the door god, household god, house God, Kitchen God and well God) requires people to expel epidemic diseases in addition to the activities of worshiping the ancestors and gods. This activity comes from the ancient Nuo (the ritual of expelling ghosts and avoiding epidemic diseases in ancient times). One of the medical methods in prehistoric times was to expel ghosts and cure diseases. As a witchcraft activity, the custom of beating drums to drive away epidemic diseases in the twelfth lunar month is still preserved in Xinhua, Hunan and other areas. Later, it evolved into a religious festival to commemorate the Buddha Sakyamuni's enlightenment. The Xia Dynasty called lari "Jiaping", the Shang Dynasty "Qingsi", and the Zhou Dynasty "Da La"; Because it is held in December, it is called the twelfth month, and the day of wax sacrifice is called the twelfth day. The twelfth day of the pre Qin Dynasty was the third full day after the winter solstice, and it was fixed on the eighth day of the twelfth month in the northern and Southern Dynasties.

"Shuowen" contains: "three days after the winter solstice, wax sacrifice to hundreds of gods." It can be seen that the third garrison day after the winter solstice was the twelfth day. Later, due to the intervention of Buddhism, the twelfth day was changed to the eighth day of December, and it has become a custom since then.

Why is it that the month at the end of the year is called "La" with three meanings: first, it means "La, then", which means the alternation of the old and the new "(recorded in the book of Sui & middot; etiquette annals); Second, "those who eat wax hunt together", which means that field hunting obtains birds and animals to offer sacrifices to ancestors and gods. When "wax" comes from "meat", it means "Winter Sacrifice" with meat; On the third day, it is said that "those who wax will catch the epidemic and welcome the spring". The Laba Festival is also known as the "Buddha becoming the Tao Festival", also known as the "becoming the Tao society". In fact, it can be said that the eighth day of December is the origin of the Laba day. It is said that Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, practiced in the mountains and sat quietly for six years. He was as thin as a bone. He wanted to give up this pain. He met a shepherdess and sent him chyle. After eating, he sat cross legged under the bodhi tree and became a Buddha on the eighth day of December. In order to commemorate it, the "Buddha becoming a Buddha Festival" was launched. Chinese believers are devout, so they integrate with the "twelfth lunar day" to form the "Laba Festival", and also hold grand ceremonial activities.

The magical legend of Laba Festival

Legend of Laba Festival

Laba Festival, most people drink Laba porridge. There are many stories about the origin of Laba porridge.

One said that Laba porridge came from India. Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, was the son of King Jingfan of kapilawek (now Nepal) in northern ancient India. He saw that all living beings were suffering from birth, old age, illness and death. He was dissatisfied with the theocratic rule of Brahman at that time, abandoned the throne and became a monk. After six years of asceticism, he realized the Tao and became a Buddha under the bodhi tree on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. During these six years of asceticism, he ate only one hemp and one meter a day. Future generations do not forget his suffering. They eat porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month every year as a souvenir. " Laba has become the "Buddha's path anniversary." Laba is a grand festival of Buddhism. Before liberation, Buddhist temples in various places held bathing Buddha meetings, chanted scriptures, and imitated the legend of shepherds offering chyle before Sakyamuni became a Taoist priest. They cooked porridge with fragrant Valley and fruit for the Buddha, which is called "Laba porridge". Laba porridge was given to disciples and good men and women. Later, it became common among the people. It is said that before the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, monks held bowls and prayed along the street to cook the collected rice, chestnut, jujube, nuts and other materials into Laba porridge and distribute it to the poor. It is said that after eating, you can get the blessing of the Buddha, so the poor call it 'Buddha porridge'. Lu You of the Southern Song Dynasty said: "at present, the Buddha porridge is more fed, and the festival in Jiangcun is new." It is said that there is a "food storehouse" for storing leftovers in Tianning Temple, a famous temple in Hangzhou. Usually, the monks dry the leftovers every day and accumulate a year's surplus grain. They cook them into Laba porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month and give them to believers. It is called "Fu Shou porridge" and "Fu Fu porridge", which means that they can increase their happiness and longevity after eating. It can be seen that the monks cherished the virtue of food at that time.

One said that Laba Festival comes from the custom of 'red beans beating ghosts'. It is said that Zhuanxu, one of the five emperors in ancient times, turned into evil spirits after his three sons died and came out to scare the children. In ancient times, people generally believed in superstition and were afraid of ghosts and gods. They believed that the stroke and ill health of adults and children were caused by epidemic ghosts. These evil spirits are not afraid of heaven and earth. They are only afraid of red beans. Therefore, there is the saying that "red beans beat ghosts". Therefore, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, I cook porridge with red beans and red beans to dispel the epidemic and welcome the auspicious.

One said that when Qin Shihuang built the Great Wall, migrant workers from all over the world came under orders. They could not go home for many years, and their food was sent by their families. Some migrant workers, whose homes are separated by thousands of mountains and rivers, can not deliver food, resulting in many migrant workers starving to death at the construction site of the Great Wall. One year, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the migrant workers without food accumulated several handfuls of grain and miscellaneous grains, boiled them into porridge in a pot, drank a bowl each, and finally starved to death under the Great Wall. In order to mourn the migrant workers who died of starvation at the construction site of the Great Wall, people eat Laba porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month every year.

I said that in the Western Jin Dynasty, there was a very lazy young man who was always idle and idle. His newly married wife failed to persuade him repeatedly. However, on the eighth day of December at the end of the year, the family was cut off. The young man was hungry. He searched rice jars, noodle bags and pots and pans at home, washed the leftover powder and edible residues into the pot, boiled a bowl of pasty porridge and drank it. From then on, Think hard, repent, and make up your mind to change the past. Local people take this opportunity to educate their children. They cook porridge every Laba Festival, which not only shows that they do not forget their ancestors' virtue of diligence and thrift, but also hope that the gods will bring a good year of plenty of food and clothing.

One said that the Laba Festival stems from people's memory of the loyal minister Yue Fei. That year, Yue Fei led his department to fight against gold in Zhuxian Town. It was a severe winter. The Yue family's military clothes were poor, starved and frozen. The people sent porridge one after another. The Yue family army had a big meal of 'thousand porridge' sent by the people, and returned with great victory. It was the eighth day of December. After Yue Fei's death, in order to commemorate him, the people cooked porridge with coarse grain beans and fruits on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, which finally became popular.

It is also said that the Laba Festival originated in the late Yuan Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty. It is said that when Zhu Yuanzhang suffered in prison, it was a cold day. The cold and hungry Zhu Yuanzhang dug out seven or eight kinds of cereals such as red beans, rice and red dates from the mouse hole in the prison. Zhu Yuanzhang boiled these things into porridge. Because it was the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Zhu Yuanzhang called this pot of miscellaneous grain porridge Laba porridge. We had a nice meal. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang calmed down the world and became emperor from north to south. In order to commemorate the special day in prison, he designated this day as Laba Festival and officially named the miscellaneous grain porridge he ate that day as Laba porridge.

The custom of Laba Festival. There are many records about wax sacrifice in ancient books: 'December 8 is Laba. The villagers beat fine drums, wore beard heads, and made Vajra soil to drive away the epidemic. " Wax sacrifice was originally a reward ceremony for the primitive ancestors to celebrate the agricultural harvest. It was an important festival of agricultural culture. Ying Shao's "customs pass" said: 'biography of Rites: the wax man hunts animals and animals in the field to sacrifice his ancestors. Or it is said that the waxed one will receive it, and the new one will hand it over, so the great sacrifice will repay the merit. " Its origin is very early. It is recorded in the book of rites & middot; jiaote animal: 'Yiqi began to be wax. Wax also, Suo also, is 12 years old. It gathers all things and asks for gifts. " It is also said in the historical records of the three emperors that 'Emperor Yan Shennong used it as a field affair at the beginning, so it was a wax sacrifice to repay heaven and earth'. In the Xia Dynasty, it was called "Jiaping", in the Yin Dynasty it was called "Qingsi", in the Zhou Dynasty it was called "Da La", and in the Han Dynasty it was changed to "La". The object of sacrifice: the first stingy God? Shen Nong, Si Si Si Shen? Hou Ji, nongshen? God of field officials, God of mail table border? The person who created the cottage in the field, opened the road and delimited the boundary, the cat and Tiger God, the square God, the embankment, and the water Yong God? Ditch, insect God. The wax festival in the pre Qin Dynasty was on the third day after the winter solstice, and gradually fixed on the eighth day of the twelfth month after the northern and Southern Dynasties. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, this festival was covered with the color of God and Buddha. It is said that before Sakyamuni became a Buddha, he absolutely wanted to practice asceticism and fainted with hunger. A shepherdess mixed coarse grain with wild fruits and boiled porridge in clear spring to wake her up. Sakyamuni meditated under the bodhi tree and finally became a Buddha on December 8. Since then, Buddhism has designated this day as the 'day of Buddha becoming a Tao', chanting scriptures to commemorate each other and forming a festival. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, worshipping gods and offering Buddha became the main melody of Laba Festival instead of offering sacrifices to ancestors, celebrating harvest and driving away epidemic disasters. Its festival customs are mainly cooking, giving and tasting Laba porridge, and holding Qingfeng family fruit. At the same time, many people have been busy killing new year pigs, beating tofu, making Fengyu bacon and purchasing new year goods since then. The atmosphere of "new year" is becoming stronger and stronger.