As the saying goes, "Children and children, don't be hungry, after the eighth year is the year." "Every eighth day of the first lunar month, people know that the footsteps of the Spring Festival are near. This year, Lapa happened to encounter a cold festival. The folk proverb has clouds: "Lapa meets the great cold, and the three whites are determined to be a good year." "It means that the snow at this time will bring a good omen of a good harvest."
Bai Yuping", "Snow Garden". From the People's Network Calligraphy and Painting Channel "People's Art Museum"
"Two townships are each healthy, and one porridge is happy and far away." In many parts of our country, people will drink a bowl of hot Porridge on the day of lapa festival, and there are also food customs such as soaking lapa eight garlic, eating lapa eight noodles and shaira eight tofu in different regions. The "ritualistic" lapa customs have brought people a strong New Year flavor.
Origin: Alternating between the old and the new, the epidemic greets the spring
Holding a bowl of Laba porridge in hand, while enjoying the festive food and feeling the traditional culture, we can't help but wonder: How did the Lapa Festival come about? Why drink Laba porridge on this day?
In ancient times, the word "Wax" had three meanings: one is "Waxer, Pick Up", which means the alternation of the old and the new; the second is "Waxer Hunting Together", which refers to offering prey to worship the ancestors and worship the gods; and the third is "Waxer, chasing the epidemic and welcoming the spring", which means to eliminate disasters and welcome the new spring. The ancients had the custom of "wax sacrifice" at the end of the year, and the "Customs and Customs" written by Ying Shao in the Eastern Han Dynasty recorded: "Xia Yue Jiaping, Yin Yue Qing Qi, Zhou used large wax, and Han changed to Wax." The Waxer, the Hunter, and the Yantian Hunt the Beast in order to sacrifice their ancestors. "That is, at the end of the year, the ancestors and the gods of heaven and earth are sacrificed with prey, and the food is abundant in the coming year and the peace of the family." The day on which the wax festival is held is called "Wax Day".
At first, the day was not fixed. The Han Dynasty La Day was identified as the third "Day of Shu" after the winter solstice. During the Wei and Jin dynasties, Buddhist legends and stories added new meanings to the Day of Lap, while also fixing its date on the eighth day of the first lunar month. In the "Chronicle of the Jingchu Years" written by the Southern and Northern Dynasties scholar Zong Yi, there is a record that "December 8 is the day of Lap".
There are also many theories about the origin of Laba porridge, such as the legend that "red beans beat ghosts" can dispel the epidemic and welcome good fortune, the activity of cooking porridge to honor the Buddha in commemoration of Shakyamuni's enlightenment to become a Buddha, the use of mixed grains and beans and fruits to cook "everyone's rice" to commemorate Yue Fei, and the allusion to educating future generations to be diligent and thrifty in running the family and saving grain. After several generations of inheritance and evolution, lapa festival and lapa porridge have become one and become a well-known traditional festival and food custom.
Culture: The taste of the year is getting stronger and stronger, and Vientiane is renewed
"The daily warmth of wax is still far away, and this year's wax day freeze is completely gone." The snow color of the invasion is also grass, and the spring light leaks with wicker. "At the end of the year, the Lapa Festival heralds the spring of the renewal of Vientiane. In the ancient poems describing Lapa Ba, the themes are often the custom of giving porridge at festivals, the increasingly rich taste of the Year, and the prospect of spring.
Early in the morning of the Lapa Festival, the Song Dynasty poet Wang Yang received a bowl of Laba porridge from his neighbor. The hot porridge not only expelled the cold after the snow, but also made him poetry flourish, and the poem described the common ingredients in the porridge at that time: "Chestnut peach jujube persimmon mixed sweet, lingzhi zhi is not recorded." In Lu You's eyes, the waxing moon has brought the wind and the beautiful spring feeling, the lapa porridge makes him feel a strong festive atmosphere, and the weather in front of him is also new, so he wrote a poem that "the Buddhist porridge in this dynasty gives each other, and the jiangcun festival is new". "Year Dengtong Wax Festival, Wine RipeNing Village Ong... The village smelled the drums and it was another year. "Ming Dynasty poet Li Xianfang's "La ri" sets off the liveliness and peace of the ancient LaRi with the scene of people rushing to buy new cooked wine and the sound of drums that can be heard in the streets and alleys.
In the winter of the second year of the Kai Jubilee (1206), the Southern Song Dynasty anti-Jin general Zhao Wannian held xiangyang in the face of the pressure of 200,000 Jin troops, until someone brought a bowl of Lapa Porridge and did not know that "Lapa Ba is this day". He led more than 10,000 guards to stubbornly resist and held out for more than 90 days to ensure that the city was complete and the siege was solved. Re-reading the poem "Do not provide porridge for the master, argue that Lapa Is this day", you can not only read the urgency of the war situation at that time, but also feel the national tranquility and the hard-won reunion of the family.
Food customs: warm porridge is given to each other, ancient and modern inheritance
"When you open the pot, you like the aroma of vegetables, and the salt is not wasted sugar." The group sat in the same sip of the morning sun, and everyone had a warm heart. "On the day of the Lapa Festival, drinking a bowl of porridge made of rice, wheat, beans, fruits, vegetables and other ingredients is a festival custom in many regions of China. As the saying goes, the thick porridge also shoulders the "heavy responsibility" of gluing the frozen chin.
In fact, the custom of eating porridge is not only widely spread, but also has a very long history. As early as the Song Dynasty, the literary scholar Meng Yuanlao introduced Lapa Porridge in detail in the "Tokyo Dream Hualu": "The great temples are used as bathing Buddhist meetings, and send Seven Treasures five-flavored porridge and disciples, called 'Lapa Porridge'. The people of the capital also eat porridge from fruit and miscellaneous ingredients. At that time, the custom of "cooking porridge with fruits and miscellaneous materials" on the eighth day of the first lunar month had been widely accepted.
In addition to Lapa Porridge, there are still many special food customs of Lapa Festival in various parts of China. In North China, people have the custom of soaking "Lapa Eight Garlic" on the day of Lapa Ba, the finished color of Lapa Garlic is like emerald, the taste is sour and spicy, and it is just right with New Year dumplings; in the northwest region, people will eat a bowl of "Lapa Eight Noodles" with fresh flavor and strong noodles to spend the New Year's Festival; in YiXian County, Huangshan County, Anhui Province, people will dry "Lapa Eight Tofu" before and after Lapa Eight, and the tofu is yellow and moist like jade, salty and sweet, which is known as "vegetarian ham".
"Lapa porridge, drink for a few days, mile and mile la twenty-three." As soon as The Eighth Pass, it is immediately followed by the Small Year, and the taste of the Year is as strong as a day. From the eighth to the Chinese New Year's Eve, people have removed old dust, cut New Year meat, added new clothes, steamed steamed steamed buns, etc. in these twenty days, and "busy new year" in an orderly manner to make full preparations for the Spring Festival.