Today Lapa Viii.
Lapa Festival is not a public festival for modern people, but this traditional festival still has a deep-rooted influence on the folk. Even after the modern revolutionary movement to change customs and customs, folk life is fragmented, and some traditional festivals are still in the memory of the people, awakening when the days come. The Festival of Lapa is one such festival.
Lapa Sacrifice Stove: Make a good relationship with the Stove King
When I was a teenager, every year when it was almost the waxing moon, my parents would chant that the eighth month was coming. But by the eighth day of the eighth month of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar, there seemed to be no special ceremony in the family. In addition to eating lamb, I was impressed, and there was no festive food in terms of eating, and I had never seen or eaten lapa porridge and lapa garlic that my parents said on their lips. So much so that for a while I always thought that Laba porridge should be porridge made of eight ingredients, and eight treasure porridge came from Laba porridge. After studying and living in Beijing, I ate Laba garlic, which turned out to be vinegar soaked, green and white, beautiful in color, and good in taste.
Of course, except for Lap 8, the entire Month of December, that is, the Waxing Moon, is spent in the atmosphere of festival and preparation for the festival. After the eighth year, it is time to prepare the sacrificial stove and celebrate the New Year. Many of these festivals are still fresh in my mind, such as the cleaning, especially the chóng house, which is very important. Heavy house in our place refers to the stove house, kitchen, I went to school to read history, read the Jedi Tiantong, South Zhengzhong, North Zhengli respectively Si Tiansidi, heavy belongs to the southern Yandi tribe, Yandi, Zhu Rong (also similar to the accent) are the names of the Vulcan tribe, the stove prince is called the name of the heavy house. I suddenly understood that the state of a cultural mainstream or superstructure would dive into the grassroots of life in the long river of history, just like the "MingTang", the core of the ancient society, which later went deep into the folk and became the name of our southerners " Tangya "Tangya", and it is the source of the name of "Lobby" that people are familiar with today.
Rural stove houses, in addition to pots and pans, stoves, etc., other places are rarely cleaned during the year, and they must be carefully cleaned before the new year of the waxing moon. We generally call it "sweeping dust", "dust dust" and "dust dust". This is what the King of the Stove must do. Because the stove king has to report to the heavens, the daily life of the family, especially whether the stove house is suitable for the stove king, all depends on whether the work in these few days is home. Father used his own newly broom to clean the smoked walls of the stove, almost completely renewed. When cleaning the house, the mother will cover the furniture in the house with cloth sheets and other objects, and the exquisite family will wrap the head with a headscarf or towel, and then sweep the wall up and down. After cleaning, scrub the tables and chairs, sweep the floor, and welcome the arrival of the new year with a new look.
At this time, there will be vendors coming to the village to sell "sticky sugar". We call it candy, which is a kind of maltose, made into a whole piece the size of a log or a round or square, and the buyer buys and sells for five cents and a dime, and the vendor will knock a small piece from it to the buyer. Later, I heard that this sugar was also called "Kanto sugar", and I knew that this food was also the stove sugar for the stove king to send off. I don't remember my parents sacrificing the stove with sticky sugar or the like, but I heard them chanting in the stove house and begging the stove king to bless, "Heaven says good things, and the netherworld ensures peace." "Don't burn incense usually, temporarily hold the Buddha's feet" is also known at this time. It is said that at this time, a special reception should be given to the stove king, rice balls, sugar, wine, etc., for the stove king to enjoy, "eat the mouth of the people short", the stove king will say good things to the family in front of God.
Good relations with the stove prince has a long history in China, the Spring and Autumn Period is popular to say, "rather than flattering the Ao, rather than flattering the stove", the O is the southwest corner of the house, the ancients thought it was the most honorable place, and the major sacrifices were here. The meaning of this sentence is that instead of praying for blessings to the more honorable places of worship, it is better to pray for blessings to the god of Vesta, who governs our food and drink. In the analects, it is recorded that Wang Sun Jia in the Spring and Autumn Period once asked Confucius about the meaning of this sentence, and Confucius replied, "No." Guilt is given to heaven, and there is no prayer. Confucius meant that there was a problem with the popular phrase "psychological chicken soup", and the eyelids were too shallow, thinking that the county officials were not as difficult as the current manager and the king of Yan to coax the little devils, because once people committed heinous crimes, it was useless to pray to any god.
Of course, we say that we are actually solemn in sending the stove prince to heaven, and the opportunistic trick of entertaining the stove prince still reflects the "self-discipline of folk morality and ethics." In particular, the sacrifice stove and the delivery stove are almost the content of the small year, which shows the solemnity of the people.
Lamb, one of the most important foods of the Eight Festivals
Let's go back to the lamb eating of the Lapa Festival. The reason why I was deeply impressed by the fact that I ate mutton was because my hometown was in the south, and it was cold in winter, and after the mutton fat froze, it was mushy and greasy in my mouth, which made people very uncomfortable. We rarely raise sheep to eat lamb, and I wonder if my family buys lamb in the waxing moon. Often, except for the father, the family will not move the second chopstick.
Later, when I read the book, I found that sheep were an important part of the Wax Festival, which was an important ritual in the traditional Chinese upper class life. The custom of lamb was also accumulated from history.
The famous "July" in the book of poetry is an outstanding poem reflecting the production and life of the early Zhou Dynasty society, which says, "September is frost-free, October is clean." Pongjiuss (xiǎng), known as the killing of lambs, 跻 (jī) Pi Gongtang. Sì gōng: Long life without boundaries! This sentence describes the scene of the ancestors slaughtering sheep at the end of the year and holding a banquet to bless them.
Lu Xun once wrote the poem "Gengzi Sends stove to the matter": only chicken gum candy, canon for incense. There are no long things in the house, and there are few yellow sheep. Lu Xun said in the article "Sending stove day manhua pen": "On the day of the ascension of the stove king, there was a kind of sugar sold on the street, the size of a mandarin, and we also had this thing, but it was flat, like a thick small flapjack. That's the so-called gum tooth. The original intention was to invite Zaojun to eat, sticking to his teeth, so that he could not adjust his mouth and learn his tongue, and said bad things to the Jade Emperor. Among them, the allusion to the "Yellow Sheep" comes from the "Later Han Shu Yin Zhi Biography": "When Emperor Xuan was proclaimed, the Yin Zi Fang was filial piety and benevolence. The sun was cooked in the morning, and the god of Vesta was seen, and the son was worshipped and celebrated; there was a yellow sheep in the house, because it was worshipped. Since then, he has become extremely rich. Zhi Zhi III, and Sui Fanchang, so he often recommended Huang Yang Yan with the La Ri ritual stove. "When Emperor Xuan of the Western Han Dynasty, Yin Zi Fang was close to filial piety and accumulated goodness and virtue. One morning, when he was cooking on the stove, the king of the stove showed his face, and Yin Zifang hurriedly knelt down to thank him, and there was a yellow sheep in his family, so he slaughtered and worshipped the king of the stove. Since then, Yin Zi Fang's fortunes have continued, and he has become extremely rich. After hearing the story of the "Yellow Sheep Sacrifice Stove", many people slaughtered the sacrificial stove on lari. Since then, the custom of killing yellow sheep and sacrificing stoves has been handed down.
The Song Dynasty also wrote the Yin Zi Fang into the poem of the Sage's Filial Piety: "The ancestral stove makes people rich, and it is said that the Yin Zi Fang." Anzhi tian to filial piety, not in the recommendation of yellow sheep. Of course, some people have rewritten this story, and it is said in the "Jingchu Chronicle" that Yin Zi Fang "sacrifices it with a yellow dog, called the yellow sheep", sheep are more expensive than dogs, and the relationship between Yin Zi Fang and The Stove Prince is beneficial and not costly.
In any case, this historical allusion shows that sheep are an important tribute to the king of the stove. When this rule or custom began before the Book of Verses is difficult to examine. However, the use of sheep in the official celebrations of the imperial court after the Spring and Autumn Period is indeed well documented, and there are many stories.
In the Han Dynasty, the Wax Festival, which used sheep as a tribute, evolved into a later period and formed a trend of extravagance and waste. So much so that the imperial court once issued an edict criticizing everyone for spending too much on sacrifice. Later, a minister gave a speech to the emperor and accused the family of celebrating the Festival of Fortune, holding a feast and wasting three hundred sheep in one meal.
In short, lamb is one of the most important tributes or foods of the Festival. Yang Yun, the nephew of Ma Qian of the Taishi Company, once wrote a letter called "Baosun Huizong Shu", which is the same as his grandfather's famous article "Bao Ren An Shu". In this text, Yang Yun said, "The Tian family is bitter, and when he is old, he cooks sheep and cannon lambs, and fights wine to do his own work." It can be seen from this that the farmers work hard, and in the annual festivals of the summer and the severe winter, the custom of sacrificing sheep, eating mutton and drinking some small wine to supplement has become quite popular. Whether the lamb is boiled or grilled, it has the meaning of sacrifice and replenishment.
When I was a teenager, I questioned the moon eating sheep, which had such a long history and such vivid character stories, which added meaning to this festival.
When did the Festival of Lap come from? What does Lap mean?
It is also interesting to sort out the history of the LapPa Festival.
It is true that the december of the lunar calendar is called the Waxing Moon, but the Lap Day does not refer to the LapPa on the eighth day of December, and the Lap Day of the Pre-Qin Dynasty is the third day after the winter solstice. In this way, the day of Lap is around the 21st and 22nd of December. The Commentaries on the Interpretation of the Text say: "After the winter solstice, the three days of the three days are sacrificed to the hundred gods." The Han Dynasty's "Four People's Moon Order" says, "December: Wax Day, recommend rice and geese." The first five days, the slaughter of pigs, the three days, the killing of sheep, the first two days, Qi (should be zhai), food, sweeping, polyester, Suila ancestors, five ancestors. Its tomorrow is called the 'little new year', into the wine to séance. The news revealed here is that the day after the LapPa is a small New Year. This is true of my memories as a teenager. Our culture and customs have remained the same for two thousand years!
As for the Lapa Festival, the movement of the Lapa Day to the eighth day of the first month of December is the result of the influence of Buddhism and Taoism later. Buddhism was introduced, and in line with our traditional culture, the Day of Enlightenment was designated as the Day of Enlightenment. The day of Buddha's enlightenment is fused with the day of Lapa and is known in buddhism as the "Dharma Treasure Festival", which is fixed on the eighth day of the first lunar month during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Later Taoists in the mainland said that the first day of the first lunar month (Spring Festival) is Tianla, and the five emperors will be in the east; the first five (Dragon Boat Festival) will be named Indila, the five emperors will be in the south; the seventh day of July (Beggar Festival) is Daodela, the five emperors will be in the west, the first day of October (Hanyi Festival) is the people's year, the five emperors will be in the north of the five black days; the eighth day of the first month of the month (Lapa Festival) is the princely law, and the five emperors will be in the upper Xuandu Yujing.
As a result, the influence of the Lapa Festival was once overshadowed by the connotation of the laksh festival itself. For example, Laba porridge, the ingredients include rice, millet, glutinous rice, sorghum rice, purple rice, barley and other cereals, soybeans, red beans, mung beans, kidney beans, cowpeas and other beans, red dates, peanuts, lotus seeds, goji berries, chestnuts, walnut kernels, almonds, guiyuan, raisins, white fruits and other dried fruits. Taking the meaning of the porridge sacrifice to the second place, after the reputation of the porridge is called, it has become both a delicacy and a health product, which has a good health effect on the spleen and stomach in winter. Another example is Lapa Eight Garlic, which originates from the "Lapa Eight Calculations" that people liquidate their debts in the Month of Lapa, and the debtors who lend out within a year must do a settlement and liquidation at this time. This custom is still practiced to this day, but people have also enriched a food for the festival, on the day of Lapa Ba, the peeled garlic cloves are put into jars and bottles, poured into vinegar, sealed, and slowly, the garlic soaked in vinegar will turn green, and finally it will become all-over turquoise, like emerald jasper, becoming a delicacy.
There are also many customs and delicacies in our Lapa Festival. But when did the Festival of Lap come from? What does Lap mean? Asking these questions may be more interesting than combing through life in the moon everywhere.
The history books record that "the Yi clan began as wax." Wax also, so also, the year of December, the combination of all things and soy also. "The Yi clan refers to the title of the Heavenly Son in the ancient times, and it is also said that it is the emperor of shennong in the ancient times, so it can be seen that the habit of wax sacrifice is very long. For this reason, the history books say, "The Yandi Shennong clan used its beginnings as a field affair, so it was a wax sacrifice to repay the heavens and the earth." ”
There are many meanings about wax, and we Chinese know several meanings of wax almost as small as we are. In addition to the meaning of waxing moon, there is also the meaning of hunting animals and animals, "waxer hunting together"; there is the meaning of alternating the old and new, "waxer, pick up also"; there is also the meaning of sacrificing with meat. These meanings are mixed together to guide people to live as they should during the Lunar Month, where ancestors and gods (including door gods, household gods, house gods, vesta gods, and well gods) are sacrificed to pray for a good harvest and auspiciousness. The Xia Dynasty called the La ri "Jiaping", the Shang Dynasty "Qing Qi", and the Zhou Dynasty "Da Wax"; because it was held in December, it was called the Wax Moon, and the Wax Festival, the third day after the winter solstice, was called the Wax Day. Even though Buddhism and Taoism turn the eight days of Lapa into a waxing day, people still arrange the gift of the stove and the new year on the twenty-second and twenty-third days in actual life.
In particular, wax goods have been another name for new year goods for almost thousands of years, and they are more interesting than new year goods. In the impression, the villagers I saw when I was young, no matter what the usual relationship was, was smiling when greetings in the waxing moon. Yes, every household has to prepare bacon goods, the most common are bacon, sausages, fish, chicken, and so on. Customs have been passed down from ancient times to the present, generation after generation, year after year. No matter how rich or poor the village is, no matter how difficult and difficult life is, when the family is in the waxing moon, they must find ways to wax one or two varieties.
There are also two pronunciations of the word for laqu, namely, when the là sound is commonly pronounced, bacon refers to the meat marinated in the wax moon; when pronounced xī, bacon is the meat of the past, aged meat, dried meat. In the I Ching, it is said: "Eating bacon, encountering poison; small miserliness, no blame." "In today's terms, eating moldy bacon, finding out early that the taste is not right, and not eating it again, so it will not cause harm to the body."
In any case, three or four thousand years since the Iqi clan, it has been passed down in our land, for a long time brilliant, and once submerged in modern times. But its thousands of years of efforts to make the rich meaning of its festivals accumulate the lifestyle of thousands of families, and our festivals in the alternating days of the old and the new have the meaning of confirmation, counselling and prayer that are in line with the natural rhythm of heaven and earth. Participating in the wax festival is not only to expect a new year and a new life, but also to achieve success. We Chinese the Spring and Autumn story that we learned when we were students, "Gong Zhi Qi Zhi False Dao", it is said that Gong Zhi Qi advised Yu Guojun not to lend the Jin Kingdom a way, but the Guo Jun did not listen, so "Gong Zhi Qi, with his clan behavior, said: 'Yu Bu La. In this line also, Jin is not more important. ’”。 Gong Zhiqi left the Yu Kingdom with the whole clan. He said, "The demise of the Kingdom of Yu does not have to wait until the time of the end of the year sacrifice." Jin Guo only needed this one operation, and did not need to send troops again. This story also tells us how important the wax sacrifice is to a country and a family.
Understanding the history and stories of these wax festivals, we may be able to understand the original wax festival, which was the song of the wax festival in the era of the Iqi clan: "The soil is against its house, the water is returned to its ravine, the insects are not made, and the grass and trees are returned to its zeze!" "O earth, do not change the sand, go back to where you are; O river, do not flood, go back to your ravines; O bugs, do not eat my crops, do not breed into plagues; O plants, do not grow in the fields, return to your water!
This is the voice of a people who have experienced natural disasters (earthy, flooded, animal, planted) at the end of the year, both a prayer and a command; a mantra and a blessing!
It has been reprinted with permission from Times Book Company
This article is excerpted from: The Book of Festivals
Author: Yu Shicun