Today is Laba Festival. How much do you know about it? Laba Festival was called Laba in ancient times, so why was it changed to Laba? Today's editor will tell you what Laba Festival is, and who are the ancients related to Laba Festival?
1. What is' wax '?
December in the lunar calendar is the end of the year and has always been known as "the twelfth month". Why is December the only month in the year? This word "La" is also quite meaningful.
The first saying: "the book of rites and rites of the Sui Dynasty" records: "the wax person, then also", that is, the meaning of the alternation of the old and the new;
The second way of saying: "La people hunt with each other", which means that animals and animals are collected for ancestor worship. The word "La" comes from the side of "meat", which means "Winter Sacrifice" with meat;
Saying 3: 'wax people, follow the epidemic and welcome the spring',
2. What is Laba?
"Shuowen" says: 'three days after the winter solstice, wax sacrifices to hundreds of gods. 'in a word, it shows the attribute of the time of' twelfth day '.
At that time, Laba Festival was used to sacrifice ancestors and gods (including door god, household god, house God, Kitchen God and well God), praying for harvest and good luck.
In addition to the activities of worshiping ancestors and gods, Laba Festival also requires people to pursue 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 December.
Later, why is "La day" called "La Ba"? This is another Buddhist story.
It is said that Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, practised in the deep mountains for six years. He was so hungry that he wanted to give up the pain. He met a shepherdess and gave him chyme. After eating, he sat cross legged under the bodhi tree. On the eighth day of December, he realized the Tao and became a Buddha. In order to commemorate it, he started the "Buddha into the Tao Festival". In some Buddhist temples in China, Laba porridge is cooked to commemorate the story of the cattle herding woman on the Bank of the nilian river who helped Shakyamuni.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, in order to expand the influence of Buddhism in the local area, Laba Festival was designated as the day of Buddhism and Taoism by the traditional culture of the affiliated society.
What is the relationship between these ancient people and Laba?
The folk custom of Laba Festival is to eat Laba porridge. In ancient times, Laba porridge was made on the day of Laba, no matter in court, government, temple or people's home. There are many legends about Laba porridge.
Legend 1: Zhuanxu family
It is said that Zhuanxu, one of the five emperors in ancient times, became a devil after the death of his three sons, who came out to frighten the children. These evil spirits were only afraid of red beans, so there was a saying that "red beans beat ghosts". On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, we cook porridge with red bean and red bean to get rid of the epidemic.
Legend 2: Buddha
Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, became a monk. There was no harvest at the beginning. After six years of hard work, on the 8th of the 12th month, he became a Buddha under the bodhi tree. In these six years of hard work, I only eat one hemp and one meter a day. Later generations don't forget his sufferings. They eat porridge every year on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month as a memorial.
Legend 3: Qin Shihuang
The first emperor of Qin built the Great Wall. The world's migrant workers were ordered to come. They couldn't go home for a long time. Their food was sent by their families. Some migrant workers died of hunger at the site of the Great Wall because they could not get food from afar. One year, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the migrant workers who had no food gathered together several handfuls of miscellaneous grains and put them into a pot to boil porridge. Each of them drank a bowl of porridge and died of starvation under the Great Wall. In order to mourn the starvation of migrant workers at the construction site of the Great Wall, people eat "Laba porridge" on the eighth day of December every year.
Legend 4: Zhu Yuanzhang
It is said that Zhu Yuanzhang suffered in prison on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. He dug out seven or eight kinds of grains, such as red beans, rice and dates, from the mouse hole and boiled them into porridge,. After pacifying the world, in order to commemorate the day of their eating porridge formally named Laba porridge.
Legend 5: Yue Fei
In those days, Yuefei led his department to fight against Jin in Zhuxian Town. Yuejiajun had a meal of "thousand porridge" sent by the common people, and finally came back. This is the eighth day of December. After Yue Fei's death, the people, in order to commemorate him, cooked porridge with grains, beans and fruits on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, and finally became popular.