How to celebrate Laba Festival in South China?

The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is the traditional Laba Festival in China. On this day, people all over the country have the habit of eating Laba porridge, soaking Laba garlic, eating laba rice, Laba noodles and even Laba tofu. It is interesting to mix traditional holiday customs with food customs. Then let Lao Huangli introduce you to the Laba Festival in the south.

Sichuan Province

Sichuan Laba porridge has a variety of practices, including sweet, salty and spicy, while 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.

Guangxi

In Liucun, Longji Town, Longsheng Autonomous County, Guangxi, local Pan Yao people have the custom of making Ciba on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. The local Yao people soaked and steamed glutinous rice, mashed it into mud in a stone trough, and then kneaded it into glutinous rice. Ciba cake is delicious and very popular among local people.

Zhejiang Province

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.

Guangdong

Laba Festival is one of the traditional festivals in China. Laba porridge is eaten everywhere. Famous temples such as Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou and Hanshan Temple in Suzhou still serve porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, but 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 celebrated Laba, but it is mainly in the Pearl River Delta region, which is a custom brought by Hakkas in the north. But the materials used to make Laba porridge are different. There are millet and red dates in the north and glutinous rice, lily and lotus seeds in the south.

Jiangsu Province

People in Jiangsu eat laba porridge, both sweet and salty. Add water chestnut, walnut kernel, pine nuts, Gordon Euryale seeds, red dates, chestnuts, fungus, vegetables, Flammulina velutipes, etc. Into laba porridge. If salty porridge cooks it, just add vegetables and oil.

Hunan

On the day of Laba Festival, the temple cooked fragrant cereal porridge for the Buddha, called Laba porridge, which was popular among the people. Changsha and other places not only eat laba porridge, but also make laba beans, which becomes one of the home-cooked dishes. In rural areas, glutinous rice, bacon, red dates and walnuts are often used as laba rice on this day, and laba beans are also the most delicious on this day.

In Changsha, there are wax drums and spring grass. The proverb "La instigates farmers to be excited", so the eighth day of December is commonly known as "La Ri". On this day, many people will worship their ancestors, and the cooked Laba porridge will worship their ancestors first and then be distributed to their families. The leftover Laba porridge should also be preserved for a few days, which is a good sign of "more than one year".

Laba porridge in Changsha is generally sweet porridge, but pickled laba beans are basically salty. In southern Hunan and other places, Laba has the custom of eating and making fermented bean curd. In Xinhua and Xiangxi, there is also the custom of beating drums on Laba Festival, which means to drive away ghosts and avoid epidemics.

Fujian Province

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.

Jiangxi

Nanchang people regard Laba as a prelude to the Chinese New Year. 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. According to historical records, performers usually wear masks, pretend to be King Kong, Lux and Fang Ping, hold their hands with knives, and everyone drums and shouts noise and disease. 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".