After the eighth year is the year

The long river of years is long, and there is always a warmth that touches your heart. The north wind whistles, the house melts, and when the calendar is lifted to the waxing moon, it is lamented that the time of the year will eventually usher in the most solemn gift.

The month of the end of the year is called "wax", and the meaning of "wax" has multiple meanings in the long river of history. The Book of Sui and The Book of Etiquette records that "Lapa, Pick up", and this "pick- up" word clearly has the meaning of alternating between old and new. Waxing moon, the summary of the old days, the beginning of the new year. At this time, you may wish to enjoy the fruits of a year's hard work, ready to go, and look forward to the spring light of the coming year.

There is also a saying that "waxers hunt together", and "wax" is "sacrificed in winter" from "meat". "The great affairs of the country, in the worship and rong", the status of sacrifice in the hearts of the ancients is quite high, we need to obtain animals and animals through field hunting to sacrifice ancestors, gods and communities. Before the Tang Dynasty, the monarch would also organize the waxing moon hunting activities, which also led to the folk sacrifice of ancestors, the sacrifice of gods, as well as the customs of the waxing moon, winemaking, etc., which also showed the status of the waxing moon.

Although the waxing moon is cold, it also contains the hope of spring. "Waxers, usher in the spring with the epidemic". It is said that the Lapa Festival has the custom of "fighting ghosts with red beans". Legend has it that one of the Five Emperors of the Ancients, the Three Sons, became evil spirits after the death of their three sons, and came out specifically to frighten the children. At that time, people were afraid of ghosts and gods, and they believed that the poor health of adults and children was due to the plague. These ghosts are fearless, but they are afraid of red (red) beans. Therefore, on the eighth day of the first lunar month, people boil porridge with red beans and red beans to dispel the epidemic, which is the source of the story of "red beans fighting ghosts", and it is also an interpretation of "chasing the epidemic and welcoming the spring", and people in ancient times used the most simple way to explain their understanding of nature.

With the passage of time, the Lapa Festival became more and more respected after the Tang and Song dynasties. Regardless of the north and south, on the eighth day of the first lunar month, a warm pot of porridge is burned, which becomes the existence of this lapa ritual sense. In the Song Dynasty, the ingredients for boiling lapa porridge were walnuts, pine nuts, mushrooms, persimmon cakes, chestnuts, plus rice and beans, a total of seven, symbolizing the Buddhist "Seven Treasures", containing sour, spicy, bittersweet and salty five flavors of life, so it is called "Seven Treasures Five Flavors Porridge". Up to now, the ingredients of each lapa porridge are different, and the same is the hot feeling that everyone drinks with the porridge. In winter, the steaming pot is filled with a variety of ingredients, which is also people's yearning for a better life. Walnuts represent harmony and beauty, guiyuan symbolizes reunion and so on, these good wishes are in this bowl of porridge, but also in people's hearts.

When you have drunk this bowl of porridge, then it has also opened the prelude to the Spring Festival. "Wife and wife, don't be hungry, after the eighth year is the year." After the eighth year, the atmosphere of the "New Year" is gradually thickening, and we must also be ready to get busy to welcome the biggest festival of the year. (Lina Wang)