The twelfth lunar month
In folklore, this month is usually called the wax moon
There are also moons, late winters, wax winters,
Jiaping, Ji Dong, Severe Winter and other names
dried meat
The original meaning of "La" is the name of the sacrifice at the end of the year. In the pre-Qin period, there were many sacrificial activities on the mainland, all year round, among which there were two important sacrifices in winter, called "wax sacrifice" and "wax sacrifice". At that time, people called the winter sacrifice to the gods "wax sacrifice", and the sacrifice of wild beasts hunted at the end of the year to ancestors was called "wax sacrifice". Since both sacrifices were held in December and both had the content of praying for the next year's harvest, they gradually merged in the Han Dynasty.
The day of the wax sacrifice is called "Lap Day", and the Han Dynasty "Shuowen" explains the word "Lap": "Wax, three times after the winter solstice, Lap sacrifice to the gods." It shows that the "wax day" at that time was on the third day after the winter solstice. In the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Zong Yi of the Liang Dynasty had clearly stated in the "Jing Chu Years Chronicles" that "December 8 is the day of Lap", and this day was later also called "Laba". Later, Laba Festival was borrowed by Buddhism as the day of fasting monks, and thus produced the custom of drinking Laba porridge, which prevailed among the people, and Wu Zimu of the Southern Song Dynasty "Dream Lianglu" contained: "On the eighth day of this month, the temple is called Laba. Dasha and other temples, all have five-flavor porridge, called Laba porridge. ”
"Wax" also refers to dried meat and a meat treatment method in which meat is marinated in salt or sauce and then air-dried or smoked for preservation. Due to the dry and rainy moon and the northwest monsoon, the meat is not easy to spoil and there are not many mosquitoes, which is most suitable for air-drying to make cured meat, so the production of bacon is usually carried out in this month.
The ancients had eaten dried meat for a long time, as early as in the works such as "Zhou Yi" and "Zhou Li", there were records of "meat fu" and "cured meat", and in the Ding Gui system of the Zhou Dynasty, the preserved meat as one of the meats was served in the Ding for the nobles to enjoy.
Shang Dynasty gluttonous pattern bronze tripod Guangdong Daguan Museum collection
At the end of the year, when the old and the new alternate between the old and the new, people slaughter cattle and sheep to sacrifice to the gods and ancestors to pray for a good harvest in the coming year, so many people believe that the festival is the origin of the Spring Festival. According to the Dictionary of Chinese Folk Beliefs and Customs, "The Spring Festival is a gift from God after a year's farming." It is unclear whether this view is accurate, but since the beginning of the lunar month, people have entered the New Year and began to prepare for the new year, and a series of Spring Festival folk activities began and continued until the first month.
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