The origin of Laba

"Laba porridge can't be finished, and there will be a bumper harvest after eating Laba porridge." The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is a traditional folk festival in China-"Laba Festival". On this day in Guanzhong area, every household should cook a pot of "Laba porridge" and have a good meal. Not only adults and dolls, but also some animals, chickens and dogs, and some are posted on doors, walls and trees for good luck.

The custom of eating "Laba porridge" on Laba Festival has a long history, and it has been rising since human beings entered the agricultural society. In ancient times, "wax" meant sacrifice. As early as the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, China had the habit of offering sacrifices to heaven and earth, gods and ancestors together, and called this comprehensive sacrifice "joint sacrifice". This kind of sacrifice expresses a simple and kind psychological activity of ancient people, which means: you should thank the gods for their abundant food and agriculture all year round! So I chose to cook a pot of "Laba porridge" on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month to pay homage to the gods, celebrate the harvest and wish greater harvest in the coming year. This formed the custom of eating Laba porridge on Laba Festival. In the process of the inheritance of Laba Festival, there is also a legend that Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, ate porridge cooked by a shepherd girl with apple glutinous rice dumplings on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month and became a Buddha under a bodhi tree. People who believe in Buddhism in later generations will recite scriptures and eat porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, which adds religious color to Laba Festival. Anyway, people eat Laba porridge to celebrate the harvest.

"Laba porridge" can really reflect the bumper harvest of agriculture, because it is a kind of porridge mixed with various kinds of rice (glutinous rice, yellow rice, white rice, sorghum rice, etc.). ), all kinds of beans (soybeans, beans, cowpeas, etc. ), all kinds of dried fruits (jujube, chestnuts, almonds, peanuts, walnuts, longan meat, etc. ), tofu and meat. People in Guanzhong area and some nearby areas attach great importance to Laba Festival. However, each county, township and village has its own emphasis. Farmers in Fuping county like to make wine on this day, which is called "pulling pits"; The ancient custom in Chang 'an County is to pour minced meat on flowers and trees on this day, which is called "never rest". In Ganxian and Liquan areas, it is important to send porridge to the elderly on Laba Festival, and the daughter's family should invite the new son-in-law to eat porridge; Fengxiang area uses yellow rice and eight kinds of beans, plus oil and salt to make a laba braised rice; In rural areas of Tongchuan area, the custom of shaving heads and haircuts for boys and girls is still circulating on this day. All these things have different tastes.

On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, people in China have the custom of eating Laba porridge. It is said that Laba porridge comes from India. The founder of Buddhism, Sakyamuni, was originally the son of Sudoku king in northern India (now Nepal). He saw that all beings were suffering physically and mentally, dissatisfied with the theocratic rule of Brahmins at that time, and gave up the throne and became a monk. After six years of asceticism, he became a Buddha under the bodhi tree on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. In the past six years, I have only eaten one hemp and one meter a day. Later generations did not forget his sufferings and ate porridge as a souvenir on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month every year. "Laba" became "Buddha's Day".

"Laba" is a grand festival of Buddhism. Before liberation, Buddhist temples all over the country held Buddhist baths and chanted scriptures, and imitated the legend that a herder offered chyle before Sakyamuni became a monk, and cooked fragrant cereal porridge to offer sacrifices to the Buddha, which was called "Laba porridge". Laba porridge was presented to disciples and kind men and women, and later became a folk custom. It is said that in some monasteries, before the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, monks would hold alms bowls along the street and cook the collected rice, chestnuts, dates, nuts and other materials into Laba porridge and distribute it to the poor. Legend has it that eating it can get the blessing of Buddha, so the poor call it "Buddha porridge". The poem of Lu You in the Southern Song Dynasty said: "Today, Buddha porridge is more mutually beneficial, and the opposite is Jiangcun Village." It is said that Tianning Temple, a famous temple in Hangzhou, has a "rice stack building" for storing leftovers. Usually, monks in the temple dry leftovers every day, accumulate a year's surplus grain, and cook laba porridge for believers on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. It is called "Fushou porridge" and "Fude porridge", which means that they can increase their happiness and longevity after eating them. It can be seen that the monks at that time cherished the virtue of food.

Laba porridge was cooked with adzuki beans and glutinous rice in ancient times, and then the materials were gradually increased. People in the Southern Song Dynasty carefully wrote "Old Wulin Stories" and said, "Cooking porridge with walnuts, pine nuts, milk mushrooms, persimmon mushrooms and persimmon chestnuts is called Laba porridge." Up to now, people in Jiangnan, Northeast and Northwest China still have the custom of eating Laba porridge, which is rare in Guangdong. With different materials, glutinous rice, red beans, jujube, chestnuts, peanuts, ginkgo, lotus seeds, lilies and so on are commonly used to cook sweet porridge. Longan, longan and candied fruit are all ripe. Eating a steaming bowl of Laba porridge in winter is delicious and nutritious, which can really increase happiness and prolong life. (China Spring Festival travel rush Network)

Dietary customs of Laba porridge in various places

The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, called Laba by the people, is the first festival before the Spring Festival, and since then, the "annual flavor" has become increasingly rich. The custom of eating Laba porridge has a history of thousands of years in China, and it has different origins.

According to legend, in the northern part of ancient India, that is, in the southern part of Nepal today, there was a king suddhodana in Luowei, Carpil. He has a son named Gautama Siddharta. When he was young, he felt all kinds of pains of birth, illness and death. He found that social life was futile and was extremely dissatisfied with the theocracy of Brahmanism. So, at the age of 29, he abandoned the luxurious life of the royal family and became a monk. According to historical records, this day is the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month in China. Because he was Sakyamuni, Buddhists later called him Sakyamuni, which means Sakyamuni's saint. After Buddhism was introduced into China, monasteries were built everywhere, and the activity of cooking porridge to worship Buddha became popular. Especially on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, when Sakyamuni offered sacrifices to cultivate Buddha, all monasteries held chanting, and imitated the legendary program of offering a kind of "chyle" before Buddhism became a Buddha, and cooked porridge to worship Buddha. This is the origin of Laba porridge.

In the Song Dynasty, Wu wrote Meng Lianglu for six years: "The eighth day, the temple name is Laba. Dasha Temple and other places have five-flavored porridge, which is called' Laba porridge'. " At this time, Laba porridge has become a folk custom, but at that time, the emperor also used it to win over all ministers. Guo Sun, a native of Yuan Dynasty, wrote a story about his visit to Yan Dou: "On December 8th, Guanbai porridge was sent, which was mixed with rice and fruit. More goods win, and this story follows the story of the Song Dynasty. " "Yongle Dadian" records that "it is the eighth day of the month, which the Zen family calls Laba Festival, and the porridge is cooked for the Buddha." In the third year of Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty (A.D. 1725), Sejong changed the mansion east of imperial academy in Andingmen, Beijing into the Lama Temple. Laba, in Wanfuge and other places in the palace, cooked Laba porridge in a pot and asked lamas and monks to recite scriptures, and then distributed the porridge to palace ministers for tasting for the festival. "Guangxu Shuntian Mansion Records" says: "On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Yonghe officials cooked porridge, customized it, sent ministers to supervise it, and covered the rice." Laba porridge is also called "Qibao porridge" and "Wuwei porridge". The earliest Laba porridge was boiled with adzuki beans, which gradually enriched through evolution and local characteristics. The Southern Song Dynasty scholar's "Old Wulin Stories" said: "Cooking porridge with walnuts, pine nuts, milk, persimmons and chestnuts is called Laba porridge." Fu Cha Dunchong, a Qing Dynasty man, said in the Chronicle of Yanjing Age: "Laba porridge is made of yellow rice, white rice, glutinous rice, millet, water chestnut and peeled jujube paste. And dyed with red peach kernels, almonds, melon seeds, peanuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts, white sugar, brown sugar and miscellaneous grapes for external use. "

Tianjin people cook Laba porridge, which is similar to Beijing's, including lotus seeds, lilies, pearl rice, Italian glutinous rice, barley kernels, sticky glutinous rice, sticky yellow rice, beans, mung beans, longan meat, ginkgo, red dates, sweet-scented osmanthus in syrup and so on. They are all good in color, smell and taste. In recent years, black rice has been added. The Laba porridge can be used for dietotherapy, and has the effects of invigorating spleen, stimulating appetite, invigorating qi, calming nerves, clearing away heart fire and nourishing blood.

Laba porridge in Shanxi, also known as eight-treasure porridge, is mainly millet, with cowpea, adzuki bean, mung bean, jujube, sticky yellow rice, rice and glutinous rice. In southeastern Shanxi, cooking porridge with water is also one of the eating customs. This kind of porridge is called fragrant rice, which means adzuki beans, red beans, cowpeas, sweet potatoes, peanuts, glutinous rice and persimmons on the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month.

On the day of Laba in the northern Shaanxi Plateau, besides all kinds of rice and beans, porridge is cooked with all kinds of dried fruits, tofu and meat. Usually cooked in the morning, sweet and salty, depending on people's tastes. If it is lunch, we should cook some noodles in porridge and have a reunion dinner. 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. According to folklore, it is forbidden to eat vegetables on Laba, saying that there are many weeds in the field after eating Lai crops. Laba people in southern Shaanxi want to eat mixed porridge, which is divided into "five flavors" and "eight flavors" The former is cooked with rice, glutinous rice, peanuts, ginkgo and beans. The latter uses the above five raw materials to add diced meat, tofu, radish and seasonings. On Laba Festival, people not only eat Laba porridge, but also worship their ancestors and granaries with porridge.

Gansu people have traditionally cooked Laba porridge with whole grains and vegetables. After cooking, it is not only for family members to eat, but also distributed to neighbors to feed livestock. In Lanzhou and Baiyin urban areas, Laba porridge is made of rice, beans, red dates, ginkgo, lotus seeds, raisins, dried apricots, dried wax gourd, walnuts, shredded mung beans, sugar and diced meat. After cooking, it is first used to worship the door god, the kitchen god, the land god and the god of wealth, and pray for good weather and good harvests in the coming year; Then give it to the neighbors and give it to the last family. 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".

People in Ningxia usually cook porridge with lentils, soybeans, red beans, broad beans, black beans, rice and potatoes as laba rice, and add wheat flour or buckwheat flour to the "ears of wheat" cut into rhombic willow leaves, or make them into "sparrows' heads" of small round eggs, and then add chopped green onion oil for cooking. On this day, the whole family only eats laba rice, not vegetables.

Most people in Xining, Qinghai are Han people, but Laba doesn't eat porridge, but eats wheat kernel rice. Boil freshly ground wheat with beef and mutton, add green salt, ginger peel, pepper, tsaoko, Miao Xiang and other condiments, and after a night of slow fire, the meat and wheat merge into a milky white shape. Boil the pot in the morning, and the smell is fragrant.

In the "Confucius Food System" in Shandong Province, there are two kinds of "Laba porridge". One is made of rice kernels, longan, lotus seeds, lilies, chestnuts, red dates, japonica rice, etc. There are also some "porridge fruits" added to the bowl, mainly because the fruits are carved into various shapes for ornament. This kind of porridge is specially for Confucius' master and the master of the zodiac. The other is cooked with rice, sliced meat, cabbage and tofu. , is for the servants in Confucius.

People in Henan eat laba rice, which is made of eight kinds of raw materials, such as millet, mung bean, cowpea, wheat kernel, peanut, red dates and corn. When cooking, add some brown sugar and walnuts to make the porridge thick and fragrant, which means a bumper harvest in the coming year.

Eating Laba porridge in Jiangsu is divided into sweet and salty, and the cooking method is the same. It's just that salty porridge is served with vegetables and oil. Suzhou people cook Laba porridge with arrowheads, water chestnuts, walnuts, pine nuts, euryales, red dates, chestnuts, fungus, vegetables, Flammulina velutipes and so on. Li Fu, a scholar in Suzhou in the Qing Dynasty, once wrote a poem: "The porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month came from Brahma, and the seven treasures blended beautifully with mixed flavors."

Zhejiang people usually cook Laba porridge with walnut kernel, pine nuts, Gordon Euryale seeds, lotus seeds, red dates, longan meat and litchi meat. Sweet and delicious, pray for a long life. It is said that this method of cooking porridge came from Nanjing, which contains some legends.

There are many people in Sichuan. 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. Laba is closely related to porridge. Drinking porridge in Laba is also a fancy and a level.

There are some scientific reasons why people in China love Laba porridge so much, besides eating customs. The porridge spectrum written by Cao Yanshan, a nutritionist in the Qing Dynasty, has a detailed and clear record of the health and nutritional functions of Laba porridge, which regulates nutrition and is easy to absorb. It is a good dietotherapy product, which has the functions of regulating stomach and strengthening spleen, nourishing heart and clearing lung, benefiting kidney and liver, quenching thirst and improving eyesight, relaxing bowels and calming nerves. These have been confirmed by modern medicine. Laba porridge is also a good food for the elderly, but we should also be careful not to drink too much. In fact, it's not just Laba, but also the porridge for the elderly. There are quite a few varieties of porridge, which can vary from person to person. You can choose it according to your needs and eat it as appropriate. (Fujian hotline)

Laba tofu

"Laba Tofu" is a folk specialty in Ganxian County, Anhui Province. Before Laba on the eve of the Spring Festival, that is, around the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, every household in Ganxian county will bask in tofu, which is called "Laba tofu" by the people.

Emerald Jasper Laba Garlic

Pickling Laba garlic is a custom in northern China, especially in the north. As the name implies, garlic is brewed 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.

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). It is said that Laba people eat "sparrow's head", and sparrows have a headache, which will not harm crops in the coming year. This kind of boiled "five beans" is not only for eating, but also for relatives and neighbors. When you eat it every day, heat it and eat it together until the 23 rd of the twelfth lunar month, which symbolizes more than a year.

Laba noodles

In some places in northern China where little or no rice is produced, people eat laba noodles instead of laba porridge. The next day, on the morning of the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the whole family will eat Laba noodles.

The most important festival in the twelfth lunar month is the eighth day of December, which was called "La Ri" in ancient times and commonly known as "Laba Festival". Since the pre-Qin period, Laba Festival has been used to worship ancestors and gods and pray for good harvest and good luck. It is said that Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, realized enlightenment on the eighth day of December, so Laba is also a Buddhist festival, called "Buddhist Enlightenment Festival".

Laba has the custom of eating Laba porridge on this day. Laba porridge is also called "Qibao Wuwei porridge". China has a history of drinking Laba porridge for 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.

There are many kinds of Laba porridge in China. Among them, Beiping is the most exquisite, and there are many items mixed in white rice, such as red dates, lotus seeds, walnuts, chestnuts, almonds, pine nuts, longan, hazelnuts, grapes, ginkgo, water chestnut, moss, roses, red beans and peanuts. , a total of not less than twenty kinds. On the night of the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, people began to get busy, washing rice, soaking fruits, peeling, removing stones and picking carefully, then cooking in the middle of the night and stewing with low fire until Laba porridge was cooked the next morning.

More sophisticated people should first carve fruits into human shapes, animals and patterns, and then cook them in a pot. More distinctive is to put "fruit lion" in Laba porridge. Fruit lion is a lion made of several kinds of fruits, with peeled and dried crisp dates as the lion's body, half walnut kernel as the lion's head, peach kernel as the lion's foot and sweet almond as the lion's tail. Then stick them together with sugar and put them in a porridge bowl, just like a little lion. If the bowl is bigger, you can put two lions or four little lions on it. More exquisite, it is made of jujube paste, red bean paste, yam, hawthorn cake and other foods in various colors, and kneaded into statues of the Eight Immortals, the birthday girl, Luohan and so on. This decorative Laba porridge can only be seen on the altar of a big temple in the past.

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, indicating that there is more than one year. If you give porridge to the poor, it will be better for you.

Laba porridge also has the function of witchcraft in the folk. If there are flowers and fruit trees in the yard, put some Laba porridge on the branches. I believe it will bear more fruits next year.

On the day of Laba, in addition to offering sacrifices to ancestors and worshipping God, there are people who mourn the national subjugation and place their grief.

The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is Laba Festival in China. In rural areas of China, many farmers still keep the custom of drinking Laba porridge on this day. The twelfth lunar month is also called the twelfth lunar month: because it was freezing and snowing, farmers could not go out to farm, so they could only cook bacon, sausages and other foods at home.

It turns out that "Laba porridge" is not ordinary porridge, and there is a story behind it. ...

Once upon a time, there was such a family, an old couple and a young couple lived a happy life. The old couple loved the young couple very much and wouldn't let them do any work for fear that they would be tired. Therefore, the young couple can't do anything with their mouths open and their clothes stretched all day.

Later, the old couple passed away. Because the young couple couldn't work, they ate all the food in the house and finally sold the house, leaving only half a rotten hut. Winter came, and the young couple were cold and hungry, shivering in the hut. On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, they were so hungry that they swept out some miscellaneous grains from the corner of the hut and cooked some porridge to satisfy their hunger. When they cooked porridge and were ready to eat, suddenly a strong wind blew down the hut and the young couple were crushed to death.

People know this. In order to remind children of this lesson, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, they cook a pot of porridge with various miscellaneous grains and tell stories while eating.