It's Laba in a few days. Do you think it's heavier when you arrive at Laba? It's the eighth day of the lunar month, commonly known as "Laba". It is said that "Laba Festival" originated from the ancient "sacrificial ceremony". Every year, a major sacrificial activity is held on the twelfth day to pray for the harvest, good luck and peace. Do you know the origin of Laba Festival? Why eat Laba porridge on Laba Festival?
In ancient times, the spring festival actually began from this day. The old Beijingers also regarded Laba as a signal to start the Spring Festival. From this time on, the shops began to prepare new year's products, and the family also began to make all kinds of new year's food. The folk flower fair also began to organize drills.
Customs of Laba Festival
There are many folk customs in the lunar month. On the eighth day of December, Laba porridge is made of miscellaneous grains. Some farmers also sprinkle "Laba porridge" on doors, fences, firewood stacks, etc. to sacrifice the God of five grains. December 23, commonly known as "Xiaonian", people in some areas display Xiangla Dao tou and sugar point fruit to offer "Kitchen God" and so on. In fact, most people nowadays don't believe in 'gods' and so on. They just follow some ancient customs or just have fun.
Laba Festival is also called Laba Festival, Laba Festival, wanghoula festival or Buddha Road day. In ancient times, people celebrated harvest, thanked ancestors and gods for sacrifice ceremony. In addition to ancestor worship activities, people also followed epidemic disease. This activity originated from the ancient Nuo (the ancient ritual of exorcising ghosts and avoiding epidemic diseases). One of the prehistoric medical methods is to expel ghosts and cure diseases. As a sorcery activity, the custom of beating drums to drive away epidemic diseases in the last month still exists in Xinhua and other areas of Hunan Province. Later, it evolved into a religious festival to commemorate the Buddha Sakyamuni's path. It was called "Jiaping" in the Xia Dynasty, "Qingsi" in the Shang Dynasty, and "Daba" in the Zhou Dynasty. Because it was held in December, it was called "the month of December", which was called "the day of wax sacrifice". It was the third day after the winter solstice that the pre Qin days began to be fixed on the eighth day of the lunar month in the northern and Southern Dynasties.
There is a custom of eating Laba porridge on this day, which is also called "seven treasures and five flavors porridge". The history of eating Laba porridge in China has been more than one thousand years. It started in Song Dynasty. On this day, Laba porridge is made by the court, the government, the temple and the common people. In the Qing Dynasty, the custom of eating Laba porridge was even more popular. In the court, the emperor, empress, Prince, etc. all want to give Laba porridge to the Minister of culture and martial arts and the maid, and distribute rice, fruit, etc. to each temple for the monks to eat. In the folk, every family should also make Laba porridge to sacrifice their ancestors; at the same time, the family should gather together to eat and give gifts to relatives and friends.
Exquisite people should first carve the fruits into human shapes, animals and patterns, and then boil them in a pot. What is more distinctive is to put 'fruit lion' in Laba porridge. Fruit lion is a lion shaped thing made of several kinds of fruits. It uses the crispy dates which are dried by removing the date core as the lion's body, half of the walnut kernel as the lion's head, the peach kernel as the lion's foot, and the sweet almond as the lion's tail. Then stick them together with sugar and put them in the porridge bowl, like a little lion. If the bowl is large, put on two lions or four little lions. What's more, it uses dates mud, bean paste, yam, hawthorn cake and other foods with various colors to make eight immortals, old longevity stars and Arhats. This kind of decorated Laba porridge can only be seen on the table of the former big temple.
Since the early Qin Dynasty, Laba Festival has been used to sacrifice ancestors and gods and pray for harvest and good luck. After Laba porridge is cooked, we should first worship the gods and ancestors. After that, we should give gifts to relatives and friends. We must send them out before noon. Finally, it's for the whole family. It's a good omen to eat the leftover Laba porridge after a few days. Take the meaning of "surplus every year". If you give porridge to the poor, it's more to accumulate virtue for yourself.
Laba porridge has the function of witchcraft in the folk. If the yard is planted with flowers and fruit trees, we should also smear some Laba porridge on the branches, believing that more fruits will be produced in the next year. On the day of Laba, in addition to offering sacrifices to ancestors and gods, there are also mourning for the country's subjugation and mourning.