When is Laba Festival?

Laba Festival, commonly known as Laba, is the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. Since ancient times, Laba Festival has been used to worship ancestors and gods.

At the end of the year, "La" has three meanings: one is "La, then it is also", which means the alternation of old and new (recorded in the Book of Rites of Sui Shu);

The second is "wax hunters hunt together", which means that hunting in the wild can make animals sacrifice their ancestors and gods. "wax" comes from "meat", which means meat for "winter sacrifice";

Third, "Wax people, chasing the epidemic to welcome the spring." Laba Festival is also called "Buddhist Enlightenment Festival" and "Enlightenment Meeting". In fact, it can be said that the eighth day of December is the origin of Laba Festival.

Extended data:

Laba Festival is the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month (December), which originated in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties. It is said that when Zhu Yuanzhang was in trouble and suffering in prison, it was freezing. The hungry Zhu Yuanzhang actually found some seven or eight kinds of miscellaneous grains such as red beans, rice and red dates from the mouse hole in prison.

Zhu Yuanzhang cooked these things into porridge. Because it was the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Zhu Yuanzhang called this pot of miscellaneous grains porridge Laba porridge. I enjoyed a delicious meal.

Later, Zhu Yuanzhang pacified the world and became the emperor facing south. In order to commemorate that special day in prison, he designated it as Laba Festival and officially named the miscellaneous grains porridge he ate that day Laba porridge.