What are the traditional activities of Laba Festival?

Laba Festival, commonly known as Laba, is the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. The ancients had a tradition of offering sacrifices to ancestors and gods and praying for good harvest and good luck. In some areas, they have the custom of drinking Laba porridge. According to legend, this day is also the day when Buddha Sakyamuni became a monk and became a Taoist. It is called "Magic Weapon Festival" and is one of the grand festivals in Buddhism. China has a tradition of Laba Festival since ancient times. On this day, most people will cook Laba porridge, and the northern region will cook Laba garlic. Let's take a look at the knowledge of Laba Festival! First, the origin of Laba Festival

Since ancient times, Laba has been used to worship ancestors and gods (including door gods, household gods, house gods, kitchen gods and well gods) in order to pray for good harvest and good luck. According to the Book of Rites, La Worship was "the year of December, when everything gathered and everything wanted something." The Xia dynasty called Lari "Jiaping", the Shang dynasty called it "moss" and the Zhou dynasty called it "big wax". Because it is held in December, it is called the twelfth lunar month, and La Worship is called the twelfth lunar month. The twelfth lunar month in the pre-Qin period was the third day after the winter solstice, and then Buddhism was introduced. In order to expand its influence in the local area, traditional culture attaches Laba Festival as the Buddhist calendar enlightenment day. Later, with the prevalence of Buddhism, the Buddha's enlightenment day merged with the twelfth day, which was called the "magic weapon festival" in Buddhism. The Northern and Southern Dynasties began to be fixed on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month.

"Shuowen" contains: "After La Worship's three hundred gods, it is the winter solstice." It can be seen that the third day after the winter solstice is the twelfth lunar month. Later, due to the intervention of Buddhism, the twelfth lunar month was changed to the eighth day of December, and it has since become a custom.

Second, the traditional diet of Laba Festival

1, Laba porridge

Laba has the custom of eating Laba porridge on this day. Laba porridge is also called Qibao Wuwei porridge. China has been drinking Laba porridge for more than 1000 years. It first started in the Song Dynasty. On the day of Laba, whether it is the imperial court, the government, temples, or the people's homes, Laba porridge will be cooked. In the Qing Dynasty, the custom of drinking Laba porridge became more popular. At court, emperors, queens and princes give laba porridge to civil and military ministers and attendants, and distribute rice and fruit to monasteries for monks to eat. In the folk, every household should also make laba porridge to worship their ancestors; At the same time, family members get together for dinner and give gifts to relatives and friends.

Although the ingredients of Laba porridge in different regions are different, they basically include cereals such as rice, millet, glutinous rice, sorghum rice, purple rice and coix seed, beans such as soybeans, red beans, mung beans, kidney beans and cowpeas, and dried fruits such as red dates, peanuts, lotus seeds, medlar, chestnuts, walnuts, almonds, longan, raisins and ginkgo. Laba porridge is not only a seasonal food, but also a good health care product, especially suitable for maintaining the spleen and stomach in cold weather.

Step 2 cook "five beans"

In some places, Laba porridge is not called Laba porridge, but called Wudou. Some are made on Laba Festival, and some are made on the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month. Some "sparrow heads" are also cooked with flour, rice and beans (five kinds of beans).

3. Laba vinegar

Laba vinegar is a traditional custom of Laba Festival. There is a custom of soaking garlic with vinegar in Laba Festival in northern China, which is called Laba vinegar. Laba vinegar should be soaked on New Year's Day, jiaozi should be eaten on the first day, and jiaozi should be a vegetarian. You should be a vegetarian for a year, and dip it in Laba vinegar, which will have a special taste. "Laba vinegar" not only tastes mellow, but also does not go bad after a long time.

4. Laba garlic

From the north of China to the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the atmosphere of Chinese New Year is getting worse every day. In most parts of northern China, the custom of soaking garlic with vinegar is called Laba garlic. It is a custom in the north, especially in North China to brew Laba garlic on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. Its materials are vinegar and garlic cloves.

Pickled Laba garlic is a traditional snack mainly popular in the north of China, especially in the north, and it is a dietary custom of Laba Festival. Make garlic on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. In fact, the materials are very simple, namely vinegar and garlic cloves. The method is also extremely simple. Put the peeled garlic cloves in a sealable container, such as a jar or bottle, then pour in vinegar, seal the mouth and put it in a cold place. Slowly, the garlic soaked in vinegar will turn green, and finally the whole body will turn green, like jade and jasper.

Step 5 eat ice

On the day before Laba Festival, people usually scoop water in steel pots and freeze it. When Laba Festival comes, they will remove the ice and break it. It is said that the ice on this day is magical, and it won't hurt your stomach for a year after eating it.

6, Laba tofu

Laba tofu is one of the traditional folk snacks in yi county, Anhui Province, and it is a holiday custom. On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, on the eve of the Spring Festival, every household will bake tofu, which is called "Laba tofu" by the people.

On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, on the eve of the Spring Festival, every household will bake tofu, which is called "Laba tofu" by the people. The production method is to make tofu from tender small soybeans, cut into round or square blocks, then smear salt water, dig a small hole in the middle of the upper part, add a proper amount of salt, and bake it slowly in the mild sunshine in winter, so that the salt is gradually inhaled and the water is gradually dried, thus making Laba tofu. The finished product is yellow as jade, soft at the entrance, salty and sweet, and fragrant and fresh. If shrimp and other ingredients are added during drying, the taste will be better. "Laba Tofu" is usually hung in a ventilated place with straw rope to dry. You can pick it when you eat it, and it won't go bad or taste for three months. You can eat it alone or stir-fry it with meat. When people in Yixian entertain distinguished guests, they also carve them into animals and flowers, pour sesame oil, mix with seasonings such as onions, ginger and garlic, and make them into cold dishes, which becomes a feast.

7. Laba noodles

Laba noodles, seasonal food for Laba Festival. Traditional pasta is popular in Guanzhong area of Shaanxi Province. In Chengcheng area around Weibei, Shaanxi Province, porridge is generally not drunk on Laba Festival. Every year on the morning of the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, every household eats several bowls of laba noodles.

Noodles and various beans (red beans) are used as raw materials, and the noodles need to be made into leek leaves (noodles with the same width as leek leaves) for use; Red beans are soaked for one night in advance, and soup is made on the day of Laba. When the water boils, turn to low heat until the red beans are cooked, and cook the noodles on medium heat. At the same time, the cooked oil will stir-fry chopped green onion. After the noodles are cooked, the chopped green onion oil will be poured into the pot.

8. Wheat and rice

Xining Laba Festival does not drink porridge, but eats wheat kernel rice. On the night of the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, the newly ground wheat grains are cooked with beef and mutton, with green salt, ginger skin, pepper, tsaoko, Miao Xiang and other condiments, and cooked overnight with slow fire. According to the legend in Qinghai, the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is the day when Sakyamuni became a monk. Before the Taoist priest became a monk, a shepherdess offered chyle and cooked porridge with fragrant grains for the Buddha. That porridge is wheat kernel porridge, which later became "Laba porridge" in Qinghai. According to this practice, later generations made this diet into a recipe for Qinghai people, and it also became a popular dish in restaurants.

Third, the customs of Laba Festival in North and South China.

north

1, Shaanxi Customs

After laba porridge is cooked, you should sacrifice to God and ancestors first. After that, give it to relatives and friends, and be sure to send it out before noon. Finally, the whole family eats together. It is a good sign that the leftover Laba porridge will be preserved after eating for a few days, which means "more than one year". If you give porridge to the poor, it will be better for you. In some places where little or no rice is produced, people eat laba noodles instead of laba porridge. Make minced meat with all kinds of fruits and vegetables and roll out noodles. On the morning of the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the whole family eats together.

2. Gansu Customs

Traditionally, cooked Laba porridge is made of grains and vegetables, which are not only eaten by family members, but also distributed to neighbors for feeding livestock. Wuwei, Gansu pays attention to "Sulaba", eating coarse rice, lentil rice or coarse rice, cooked with fried seeds and twist. Folk call it "bean porridge bubble".

3. Xining Customs

Laba Festival does not drink porridge, but eats wheat kernel rice. On the evening of the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, the freshly ground wheat is cooked with beef and mutton, accompanied by green salt, ginger skin, pepper, tsaoko, Miao Xiang and other condiments. After a slow fire all night, the rice with wheat grains is very fragrant and delicious.

5. Northwest Customs

Laba Festival is in the northern Shaanxi Plateau. In addition to rice and beans, porridge also contains various dried fruits, tofu and meat. After eating, you should put porridge on the door, on the stove and on the trees outside the door to ward off evil spirits and avoid disasters, so as to welcome the next year's agricultural harvest. Moreover, it is forbidden to eat vegetables on Laba. If you eat vegetables on this day, there will be more weeds in the crops. On Laba Festival, people not only eat Laba porridge, but also worship their ancestors and granaries with porridge.

6. Ningxia customs

To make laba rice, rice and potatoes are usually cooked in porridge with various beans, and then "ears of wheat" cut into rhombic willow leaves with wheat flour or buckwheat flour, or "sparrow heads" made into small round eggs, and chopped green onion oil is added before cooking. Like northern Shaanxi, the whole family only eats laba rice, not vegetables.

7. Beijing Customs

Laba porridge in Beijing can be said to be the most exquisite. White rice is mixed with many things, such as red dates, lotus seeds, walnuts, chestnuts, almonds, pine nuts, longan, grapes, ginkgo, moss, roses, red beans and peanuts? No fewer than 20 kinds. On the seventh night of the twelfth lunar month, people began to wash rice, soak fruits, peel and remove stones, and began to stew with low fire in the middle of the night. Laba porridge was not cooked until the next morning.

south

1, Jiangsu and Zhejiang Customs

People in Jiangsu eat laba porridge, both sweet and salty. Laba porridge should be added with medlar, water chestnut, walnut kernel, pine nuts, Euryale euryales, red dates, chestnuts, fungus, vegetables, Flammulina velutipes and so on. If salty porridge cooks it, just add vegetables and oil.

Zhejiang people usually cook Laba porridge with walnut kernel, pine nuts, lotus seeds, red dates, longan meat and litchi meat. Sweet and delicious. It is said that this method of cooking porridge was handed down from Nanjing.

2. Guangdong Customs

In Guangdong, the atmosphere of Laba Festival is very light. Why don't Cantonese celebrate Laba Festival? This is related to the geographical location and the living habits of Guangfu people since ancient times. The ancient Lingnan water town has not been developed, and the life of the aborigines is not dominated by farming. They all make a living by fishing for shrimp and fish on the water. No one cultivates the beans and grains needed to cook Laba porridge, so there will be no custom of eating these things.

Some people in Guangdong have also eaten Laba porridge, but it is mainly in the Pearl River Delta area, which is a custom brought by Hakkas in the north, but the materials used to make Laba porridge have always been different. Millet and red dates are used in the north, and glutinous rice, lily and lotus seeds are used in the south.

3. Fujian Customs

The traditional Laba porridge in Fuzhou has an interesting feature: putting a few little lions made of fruit on the porridge can ward off evil spirits. In the past, people in Fuzhou generally began to cook Laba porridge on the seventh night of the twelfth lunar month and stewed it carefully all night. The next morning, Laba porridge was ready.

Some people will carve the fruit into various shapes first, and the most interesting thing is to be a "fruit lion". Crispy jujube is peeled and dried to make a lion's body, half walnut kernel is the lion's head, peach kernel is the lion's foot, almond is the lion's tail, and then all parts are glued together with syrup and placed on porridge noodles. If the bowl is big, you can also put a pair of lions to mean "avoiding evil and being lucky". In the courtyard of the temple, there are also small shapes such as the Eight Immortals, Luohan and Shouxing Palace made of colored foods such as jujube paste, red bean paste and hawthorn.

After laba porridge is made, it is offered to the gods and ancestors early in the morning, and then given to relatives and friends, and sent out before noon. Finally, the whole family will share food and leave a little, which is a sign of "more than one year". In the cold winter, drinking a bowl of steaming, sweet and delicious Laba porridge to drive away the cold and warm the stomach is also of great benefit to human health.

4.Jiangxi Customs

Laba Festival is the first festival before the Spring Festival, and Nanchang people regard Laba as a prelude to the Spring Festival. Starting from Laba, every household should prepare peanuts, melon seeds and bacon to buy new year's goods. There is a folk saying that "eat Laba porridge and look forward to the New Year".

"You don't have to pick Laba, it's lucky and longevity." In Nanchang, Laba is also a traditional auspicious day. On this day, Nanchang people not only drink Laba porridge, but also often hold Laba weddings such as betrothal, wife-in-law, and wife-in-law.

In ancient times, in addition to offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors, there were also "Nuo". Nuo is a unique culture in Jiangxi, and it is a ceremony to drive away epidemic ghosts. In Nanchang, in order to inherit and develop Nuo culture, Honggutan New District invested in the construction of Nuo Culture Park. According to historical records, performers usually wear masks, pretend to be King Kong, Lux and Fang Ping, hold their hands with knives, and everyone beats drums to drive away ghosts and epidemics. This is also called wax tube to drive away the epidemic. It is said that children can be safe and healthy. Later, it changed its form among the people and became fried beans and wheat. Stir-fry both beans and wheat, and then let the children eat some. This is called "biting ghosts".

5. Sichuan Customs

Laba porridge is made in a variety of ways, including sweet, salty and spicy. Rural people eat salty porridge, mainly soybeans, peanuts, diced meat, white radish and carrots. Strangers come here to taste, although do as the Romans do, but it is difficult to get used to it. Nowadays, many people in the city eat sweet porridge, which can be called unique flavor.