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Why do you eat Laba porridge on Laba Festival? What are the customs of Laba Festival

People often said that Laba is the year, and Laba Festival is an important festival in our country. Now, people don't have a deep understanding of Laba Festival. They only know that Laba Festival needs to eat Laba porridge, but why do people eat Laba porridge? What other customs do people have on Laba Festival? Let's get to know.

What to do on Laba day

1. Eating Laba porridge

It is a well-known custom to drink Laba porridge on Laba Festival. In ancient times, on the eighth day of the 12th lunar month, there was a custom of drinking or eating Laba porridge in China. According to the ancient records, fuchadunchong's records of Yanjing at the age of & bull; Laba porridge, which is made of yellow rice, white rice, jiangmi, millet, water chestnut, chestnut, red cowpea, peeled jujube mud, etc., is boiled with water, and dyed with red peach, almond, melon seed, peanut, hazelnut, pine nut and white sugar, brown sugar, and Zozo grape for spot dyeing. '.

2. Offering sacrifices to ancestors and gods

Laba Festival is the eighth day of December in the lunar calendar. In ancient times, Laba Festival is a sacrificial ceremony for celebrating harvest and thanking ancestors and gods. In addition to ancestor worship, the eighth day of the first lunar month is regarded as the Buddha's day. Therefore, the temple should hold a memorial ceremony, and often cook porridge with 8 kinds of food, such as glutinous rice, sesame, Yiren, Guiyuan, red dates, mushrooms, lotus seeds, etc., and invite the surrounding mountain people to have a holy meal, and give alms to the people's families, the old and the young, to show respect for the Buddha.

3. Pickled Laba garlic

Laba garlic is to brew garlic on the eighth day of the lunar month, which is a custom in the north, especially in North China. The ingredients are vinegar and garlic cloves.

4, eat ice

The day before Laba, people usually ladle water in a steel basin to freeze. When Laba Festival comes, they take off the ice and break the ice into pieces. It's said that the ice on this day is magical. After eating it, you won't have stomachache for the next year.

5. Laba tofu

"Laba tofu" is a folk specialty of Qianxian County, Anhui Province. On the eve of the Spring Festival, around the eighth day of the 12th lunar month, every family in Qianxian county needs to dry tofu. The people call this kind of naturally dried tofu "Laba tofu".

6. Laba noodles

In some places in northern China where there is no or little rice production, people do not eat Laba porridge, but eat Laba noodles. The next day, we use all kinds of fruits and vegetables to make saozi and roll out the noodles. In the morning of the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the whole family will eat the noodles.

The practice of Laba porridge all over the country

Tianjin

Laba porridge in Tianjin is similar to that in Beijing. Some porridge should be added with lotus seeds, lilies, pearl rice, Italian rice, barley kernel, sticky sorghum, sticky yellow rice, Yundou, mung bean, longan meat, longan meat, white fruit, red dates and sweet osmanthus in syrup, which are of good color, fragrance and taste. In recent years, black rice has also been added. This kind of Laba porridge can be used for food therapy. It has the functions of invigorating the spleen, appetizing the stomach, invigorating the Qi, calming the nerves, clearing the heart, nourishing the blood and so on.

Shanxi

Laba porridge in Shanxi Province, also known as Babao porridge, is mainly made of millet, with cowpeas, beans, mung beans, dates, sticky yellow rice, rice, jiangmi, etc. In the southeast of Shanxi Province, on the fifth day of the first lunar month, porridge is made with beans, red beans, cowpeas, sweet potatoes, peanuts, glutinous rice and persimmons. It's also called sweet rice. It's also one of the food customs.

Northern Shaanxi

On the day of Laba in Northern Shaanxi plateau, in addition to using a variety of rice and beans to cook porridge, you have to add a variety of dried fruits, tofu and meat to cook it. It is usually boiled in the morning, either sweet or salty, according to the taste. If it's for lunch, we should cook some noodles in the porridge and have a family reunion. After eating, we should spread porridge on the door, the stove and the trees outside the door to ward off evil spirits and avoid disasters, and welcome the next year's agricultural harvest. According to folk legend, it is forbidden to eat vegetables in Laba on this day, saying that there are many weeds in the farmland after eating Lai. There are two kinds of porridge in Laba of Southern Shaanxi: five flavors and eight flavors. The former is boiled with rice, glutinous rice, peanuts, white fruits and beans. The latter uses the above five raw materials to add diced meat, tofu, radish and seasoning. On the day of Laba, people not only eat Laba porridge, but also use porridge to worship ancestors and granaries.

Gansu

People in Gansu traditionally cook Laba porridge with grains and vegetables, which are not only eaten by their families, but also distributed to their neighbors and used to feed livestock. In Lanzhou and Baiyin urban areas, Laba porridge is cooked with rice, beans, dates, white fruits, lotus seeds, raisins, apricots, dried melons, walnuts, green red silk, sugar, diced meat, etc. After cooking, it is used to worship the God of door, the God of kitchen, the God of earth, and the God of wealth, praying for good weather and good harvest in the coming year; then it is distributed to relatives and neighbors, and enjoyed by the last family. Wuwei area, Gansu Province, has paid attention to the "vegetarian Laba". It eats rice thick rice, lentil rice or thick rice. After cooking, it can be eaten together with fried seeds and Mahua. The folk custom calls it "lentil congee paosan".

Ningxia

People in Ningxia usually cook porridge with lentils, soybeans, red beans, broad beans, black beans, rice and potatoes for Laba rice. In addition, they cut wheat noodles or buckwheat noodles into 'wheat ears' with rhombus willow leaves, or' sparrow heads' with small round eggs. Before leaving the pot, they put in onion oil. On this day, the whole family only eat Laba rice, not vegetables.

Qinghai

Xining people in Qinghai Province, although Han people live more, but Laba do not eat porridge, but eat wheat rice. Boil the newly milled wheat kernel together with the beef and mutton, add the green salt, ginger skin, prickly ash, grass and fruit, Miao Xiang and other seasonings, and boil it gently overnight. The meat and wheat blend into a chyle shape. Uncovering the pot in the morning makes it fragrant and delicious.

Why do you drink Laba porridge on Laba Festival

1. Good moral. In the folk, 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".

2. Dispel disease and eliminate evil. Laba porridge has the function of witchcraft among the people. On the eighth day of the first lunar month, porridge is made with red bean and red bean to dispel the epidemic and welcome the auspicious. Especially when there are flowers and fruit trees in the yard, you should also smear some Laba porridge on the branches.

3. Keep healthy and delicious. From the perspective of health preservation, the materials in Laba porridge are very nutritious. Chinese medicine is smooth: if you want good skin, put red dates in the porridge; if you don't lose sleep, add white lotus in the porridge; if you have low back and kidney qi, cook porridge and put chestnut in the porridge; if you lack heart and Qi, add cinnamon round meat in the porridge; if you have dizziness and hyperhidrosis, add Job's tears in the porridge; if you want to reduce blood pressure, cook porridge and lotus leaf; if you want to invigorate the spleen and help digestion, cook porridge and add hawthorn; Dreamy and forgetful porridge with egg yolk. Therefore, we must also remember to drink Laba porridge on the Laba Festival in 2017.